


XCOM:Land of Fantasy

by UNSCKnowYourPlace



Category: Touhou Project, XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, Gen, Military, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27376378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UNSCKnowYourPlace/pseuds/UNSCKnowYourPlace
Summary: The Alien Invasion is over, the world began to rebuild what was lost, peace is restored. Yet wary of the stars, the people of the world will know that their planet held secrets of its own than the stars above. XCOM will once again, dive to the unknown.
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Crossover Story for XCOM and Touhou Project set 5 years after the events of XCOM: Enemy Within  
> This story can also be found in Fanfiction dot net(FFN) under the same story name and author.

**Chapter 1**

**Japan**

**Somewhere near or around the Yatsugatake Mountains**

A group local and foreign tourist currently enjoying a trek in the mountains while taking picture of the breathtaking scenery offered as their tour guide explaining to the group about the significance of this mountains to the nearby towns and Myths surrounding the mountains as the group continue to near a canteen/lodging area where the group temporarily settled to buy some refreshments and take pictures of the surroundings. While most of the people inside are busy on what task they are doing, two of the tourists leave the building without the tour guide or any of the other tourists knowing and went inside the forested part but before they could get deeper inside the staff of the canteen who was about to dust some leaves notice the two and went to run at them yelling

"Wait Sir, Maam, You can`t go in there that area is restricted" Female-Staff said yelling and following from behind but stop clearly conflicted whether to follow them or not "The Boss will fire me if I don`t stop them but I should tell the boss before heading out." she went to inform her boss before running towards the direction of those two tourist

"Shouldn`t we go back and informed the group?" Female-Tourist said to her companion

"Now where is the fun part of this adventure?" Male-Tourist said as they continue deeper to the forest "Besides I got GPS and I memorize the path we came so we don't get lost."

They continue walking for a few minutes and settle down near a small lake where they took pictures since it's so beautiful, as they continue taking pictures they hear rustling of bushes nearby. The Male-tourist pick up a tree branch and point towards the rustling sound while female hide behind the male for protection, the tense moment was shattered when the Staff of the canteen or lodging area came out with leaves sticking to her uniform and was gasping for breath

"Sir and Maam, I urge you to go back" Female-Staff said while gasping for air "This place is restricted and dangerous"

"What is so dangerous about this place anyway?" Male-Tourist said "There is nothing but birds and insects here"

"But Sir, I urge you and your companion before I will lose my job" She replied "There were reports of tourist missing in these parts of woods"

"Shouldn`t you have informed your boss or any qualified personnel?" Female-tourist asked

"I already informed him before giving chase." She said "I just don't want to get fired and to try finding another job, please"

The two tourists look at each other before nodding and started following the staff back, the Female-tourist got curious of the reports of missing tourist

"What do you mean of tourist reported missing?" Female-tourist asked

"There was an incident last few week about a group of students visiting going missing after walking to this part of the forest, Police search the area high and low and they found no one. Last week foreign tourists from Europe came to visit and walk to this part despite warnings gone missing all what they found is bloodstains on the ground and rip clothes. It was the part that I warned those tourist but ignored my warning, my boss reduced my pay and luckily the families didn't press charges of negligence however my boss told me that I`m going to get fired if similar things will happen again."

"We are sorry, but don`t worry we will be the one explaining to your boss so you won`t get fired" Female-tourist reassured the Staff who give a grateful smile

"Should this tourist spot be close from all those incidents?" Male-tourist said

"The Police came to investigate the incident and dismiss it as wild animal attack. To calm down the public they started posting police on some parts of the trail but the police officers they posted are lazy and rude" Female-staff said and from her tone it was evident it held contempt

As the three continue their trail back they heard a growl similar to a wolf, they look towards the sound and the Male-tourist who was still holding the tree branch motioned to the girls to prepare for running as the sound of growl become louder and louder. The Three didn't waste any time and run back with all their strength never looking back

**Back at the rest of the Tourist**

The incident cause a number of people gossip and the police came in to rescue back the two tourist and the staff before another incident as last week will happen again. Before the Police could go in the forest they heard a screaming person running towards them, the police pull out their pistols and aim at the direction of the sound and they saw the Male-Tourist who was breathing heavily with claws wounds on his body, the police rush towards his aid

"Help, Help me" Male-tourist said panicking as grip tightly to the police "It took them, it took them… I tried to protect them… You gotta help me"

"Sir, you need to calm down" The police officer said as he apply some first aid to the wounded tourist "Explain to me in a calm manner, you said they were taken? Taken by who?"

"They were taken by a monster, a monster it has razor sharp claws and teeth" Male-tourist explained "It came out from nowhere and grab the two girls but I tried smack it with a tree branch but it clawed me before the branch could hit it."

The police and bystanders who heard him keep looking at him like he was crazy but as they continue to listen they don't notice that one of the police pulled out a phone and contacted someone.

* * *

**XCOM Base**

While the Commander, was walking back towards his office after getting a coffee from the cafeteria, is usually greeted by XCOM personnel who pass by him as they go to their respective tasks or simply taking a break after all, there isn't much alien activity after the war even though five years have passed they are still dealing with remaining Aliens who are hiding around the world after XCOM blew up the Temple ship effectively making them stranded on the planet. While they still have their individual ships they could use to evacuate and run however, the stealth satellites will easily spot them and be intercepted by Raven or Firestorm interceptors to be shot down and a squad of XCOM soldiers is then sent for cleanup operations.

So far most of the alien activities are currently in Europe and Africa with alleged sightings of Aliens. The Aliens, while they seem to be doing there standard and usual activities, it still keeps XCOM on edge, with the aliens upper leadership gone, this makes the surviving aliens unpredictable and their current objectives unknown.

EXALT a terrorist human organization who harbor misguided sympathies with the Alien Invaders begin leaving traces in Asia and South America even if their HQ was destroyed, XCOM is yet to capture any significant EXALT persons or dealt a final blow to the EXALT to permanently cripple and destroy it for good.

The Council consists of the group of 16 countries that created XCOM and who continue to fund and support the organization. The Council, represented by its mysterious shadowy spokesman, contacted XCOM two years after the Assault of the Temple Ship decided to cut the organizations budget in half as the threat of remaining Extraterrestrials and EXALT is something that could easily be managed in this current time, the Council of Nations reasons that they needed the money to rebuild most of their destroyed cities and cover up any potential leak to the existence of XCOM while the General Population is aware of the existence of alien due to the Terror Attacks they conducted the general population is still unaware of XCOM existence despite rumors circulating in the internet about a group of highly advance group of humans who is fighting against the alien invaders. The Commander as much as he wanted the praise of the population for a job well done… the less people know about XCOM the less information the enemy can use against XCOM and threaten humanity.

**_"COMMANDER TO THE SITUATION ROOM, COMMANDER TO THE SITUATION ROOM" The Base PA system said_ **

**Situation Room**

The Commander arrives with his cup of coffee and was greeted by Central Officer Bradford who was wearing his signature green sweater with an XCOM logo near the chest

"Good Day Commander" Bradford said

"Good Day to you too Central" Commander greeted back "Coffee?" Bradford shakes his head

"Patch us through" Bradford said on the wireless headset he usually wore

Suddenly the large monitor screen hanging on the wall changes and person clearly wearing a Tuxedo suit although his face is obscured by darkness and his voice distorted to avoid compromising his identity…this person goes by the name of Council Spokesman but most of the people in XCOM HQ call him Spokesman, He is the face and voice of the Council.

" ** _Hello Commander, your recent success against the remaining extraterrestrials is commendable and the Council is please with your performance_** " Council Spokesman said " ** _Our intelligence sources are receiving reports from Japan, mysterious kidnappings of locals and foreign tourist within a certain area, while this task should not be XCOM job, a survivor from this attempted kidnapping recently testified of a monster disguising itself as human, luring and kidnapping unsuspected people. We believe this might be a new method of surviving extraterrestrial to abduct and possibly infiltrate of Human Society. We trust you will isolate the source of this new threat and eliminate it._** " The Screen turned off and displays the map of the world

"Central, Get a team ready and inspect that area" Commander ordered before sipping his coffee

"Right away Commander, although the team is gonna be mostly rookies" Bradford said with a concerned tone remembering the mission at the very start of the invasion in Germany "While it's not recommended to send a team with only a single veteran with three rookies"

"I understand your concern Central but, Time is of the essence also the rookies need to get field experience despite their good scores on the simulation exercise and target practice it will still be for nothing if they don't have field experience" Commander answered "Beside we got a SHIV that we could send to accompany them"

* * *

**Somewhere in Japan  
Skyranger En-route to Area of Operation**

**OPERATION: Crimson Axis**

**"You are being deployed to Japan, We received intel of possible alien abduction in one of the tourist spots in Japan after ruling a possibility of human involvement, As you know Japan is a member of the Council and they have requested our assistance. Our mission is to Eliminate or Capture any Aliens and rescue any surviving civilians in the AO, Central out" the Hologram of Central blinking out of existence after delivering the Mission Briefing**

The Skyranger slowly descends near the Area of Operation before slowly opening its rear doors, four soldiers and a floating drone came out weapons raise d scanning the surroundings. The assembled XCOM team codename Strike, Strike-1 the leader of the team is a veteran of the war is equip a heavy duty sci-fi armor painted in grey also known as Titan Armor and a Plasma Rifle, he has an Arc Thrower attach to his hip, Three of the soldiers designated Strike-2, Strike-3 and Strike-4 are wearing a semi-futuristic armor with a grappling hook also known to XCOM as the Skeleton suit, Strike-2 the designated sniper of the team is equipped with Laser Sniper Rifle, Strike-3 support equipped with a light plasma rifle, Strike-4 the heavy of the team is equipped with Heavy Laser and Rocket Launcher. The last member of the team is the Super Heavy Infantry Vehicle aka SHIV, is a Hover type SHIV equip with Plasma weapon as its primary and only weapon and serve the team as a force multiplier for the team and a fast recon unit.

"Central, this Strike-1 No enemies on site" Strike-1 said in the comms

 **"Copy that Strike-1, Proceed with caution we don't know what's out there"** Central said through the comms

"Strike-2 find a vantage point and provide us overwatch, Strike-3 take the SHIV with you and secure the right flank, Strike-4 with me" Strike-1 order as the team move deeper into the forest

The Team continue to deeper into the forest until they reach a small clearing where they found a humanoid kneeling down and beside it they found two female civilians tied with a rope around their hands and feet along a piece of cloth covering their mouth and was shaking in fear. Strike-1 gestured to Strike-4 to set up a suppressing fire along with the SHIV while he gestured to Strike-3 to try getting the civilians out of harm's way.

As the team slowly moves into position to avoid alerting the person, the unknown person spoke clearly in Japanese which was translated by the Strike Team helmet

"Don`t bother hiding humans, I can hear you rustling in the trees and your smell doesn't betray your scent" The Person said

"Unidentified person, you are requested to stand down and surrender for questioning" Strike-1 said hiding behind a tree weapons drawn "Central you getting this?"

**_"We getting it Strike-1, this doesn't look like any x-ray at all… It must be an EXALT soldier" Central said_ **

"Funny you humans aren`t afraid of me" The Person said looking at Strike-1 "Your corpse will be dinner tonight" As he said that he began to transform into a werewolf with grayish fur covered his whole body with very sharp claws and teeth " **ROAR"**

**"WHAT THE?!"Central exclaimed seems shock of the transformation "Strike-1 whatever that thing is, proceed with caution… that must the monster the intel said"**

The moment he ran towards the team is the needed catalyst for Strike team to open fire but their shot misses because the werewolf was fast to dodge by either zig-zag or jumping them and some of the shots seem only grazing its fur by a few centimeters. The werewolf manage to reach Strike-4 with its claws bearing down ready to tear him up as pure terror on his eyes could be seen behind his helmet an unexpected savior prevented his fate as the Hover SHIV ram through the sides of the werewolf making him land few feet away from Strike-4

"You Stupid thin can" The Werewolf snare at the SHIV and run towards ready to tear it apart only to trigger the Sentinel Drone Protocol of the SHIV which was designed against enemy who likes to move within a certain radius around the SHIV. The werewolf receive a three plasma burst shots to its chest making it howl in pain " **IT HURTS, YOU PESKY HUMANS WILL PAY** "

The werewolf caught SHIV turret who continue firing but the werewolf turned its turret away from him before tearing it apart from its body by striking the neck that connects the turret to the chassis then throw the useless turret away and from the corner of its eye he saw Strike-3 who was busy moving the civilians away from battle but before he could drag them behind a Tree, the werewolf stretch out his left hand fire a lightning attack towards Strike-3 who was unaware of the attack heading towards him, the civilian tried to warn him but it was too late and hit his back shouting in pain before collapsing in the ground alive but unconscious

"Ah, Why won`t it die" Strike-4 said panicking, seeing his teammate down in one attack and destroyed a SHIV, Strike-4 begin firing wildly on the werewolf who look on him unfazed of the shots and outstretch its left hand again ready to fire a lightning attack only for a red laser hitting it

"Strike-2, about time" Strike-1 said clearly annoyed about the late support fire as he was firing towards the werewolf who was clutching his hand and busy dodging the incoming fire

"Sorry sir, the x-ray moving too fast for me to scope" Strike-2 said before firing a another shot towards the werewolf only hitting its shoulder as it moves towards the side to dodge, Strike-1 took the opportunity to grab Strike-4 and drag him behind a tree while Strike-2 was busy occupying the werewolf "Also the trees weren`t helping me find a better spot forcing to get closer to the clearing Sir"

"Snap out of it soldier" Strike-1 said trying to snapped Strike-4 Panic attack by slapping him in the helmet or shaking him but it was unsuccessful as the soldier decided to hunker down behind the tree continue muttering, Strike-1 was about to say something before he heard Strike-2 yelling and got toss towards the clearing with clear scratches on its armor along with a bleeding right arm and it was clearly firing his laser pistol in his left hand but due to pain in his right arm and firing from his non dominant hand, he couldn't aim well missing his shots by a few centimeters "This was suppose a simple recon mission and now it`s gone to FUBAR."

Strike-1 firing its plasma rifle with clear fire discipline hone of countless battles scoring two hits on the werewolf one near the hip and other on its left leg, the werewolf is angry beyond doubt and run towards Strike-1 ignoring the wounded Strike-2 who was breathing heavily as he try to put pressure on his bleeding arm

" **THE GAMES END HERE HUMAN** " The Werewolf said while running in zig zag to avoid the plasma fire before tackling Strike-1 to the ground who duck in time and smack the butt of the Rifle on the head of the werewolf who staggered a little

Strike-1 raise his weapon but the werewolf slap it aside disarming Strike-1,He quickly pulled out his plasma pistol and pressed the trigger but the werewolf grab the front and aim it downward before the plasma bolt discharge from the pistol hitting the ground. Strike-1 use his right arm to block an incoming claw strike from the werewolf as the claws could hardly penetrate the armor, then Strike-1 let go of his pistol and punch the werewolf on his stomach and followed it with a punch to the head but the werewolf has a faster reaction after recovering from being punch, caught the fist although it make him grimaced a little from the impact but Strike-1 pull a low blow by kicking the werewolf in-between its leg before the said werewolf could counter attack

" **LOW BLOW** " The werewolf said clutching to his jewels before suffering an electric spasm on the ground

"F*ck you" Strike-1 said who was still aiming the Arc Thrower which was set to its highest setting capable of shocking Berserkers and Elite Muton with no problem, Strike-1 stared at the unconscious werewolf on the ground making sure it`s not faking it "Central, This is Strike-1, mission complete tell the doc were bringing a live one"

" **Copy that Strike-1** " Central said

While Strike-1 was busy tending to his teammates and traumatized civilians while the Skyranger is on its way to pick up the team, things are quite rowdy back at XCOM base.

* * *

**XCOM Base**

Central Officer Bradford along with and Dr. Vahlen were watching the battle courtesy of SatRecon-2 watching over Japan and built-in cams in the helmet of Strike team while the rest of the staff where doing their task as usual but you can hear some whispers every now and then from the recent mission

"I can't wait to examine this new specimen their bringing in."Dr. Vahlen said excitedly "new specie hiding somewhere, what secrets they hide… interesting to say it looks like a werewolf from the myths"

"I wish I could share the same enthusiasm as you Doctor" Bradford said "While it doesn't look like the thin men our troops fought and those things don't transform and look like a humanoid wolf and has razor sharp claws rivaling a Berserker."

"The mission is success while only suffering some injuries, I fear for the future mission our soldiers will undertake" said calmly "This could also spell badly for us, as we need to modify our weapons and develop new ones against this new adversary we are facing if we wish to avoid casualties."

"While the decision depends on the Commander" Bradford said he was interrupted by a XCOM staff handing him a folder "But it seems this mystery is giving us more questions" Handing the file to who was seems intrigue of the contents

"Seems you are right" Dr. Vahlen commented "Questions we have yet to answer"

**VIGILO CONFIDO**

**End of Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**XCOM HQ**

**Alien Containment Facility**

The werewolf woke up with a slight body pain, then transform back to its human form and observe his surroundings, saw several scientist looking at him clearly intrigue of his shape shifting ability

"The Subject seems to be capable of shape shifting capabilities and capable mimicking the Human Appearance in perfect form" Dr. Vahlen said with a German accent "Greetings, can you understand me?"

"What do you want with me Human?"The werewolf asked as his hands touch the glass chambered he was trapped in

"Answer that you can provide to my questions" Vahlen said before pulling out a data pad in her lab coat

"Do you think I will provide you answer?" The werewolf said "You can`t make me talk Human."

"Pity" She said before clicking on her datapad "I was hoping for a normal interrogation for once but it's time to resort to the tested method again."

"You think your interrogation methods could make me talk Human" The werewolf snarled "Do your worst human"

Two mechanical arms slid out from the wall emitting a wave like energy, for once in his life the werewolf was grip with fear as this arms could kill him and transform to its monster form and began bashing and slashing the glass in front of him even launching his lightning attacks. Unfortunately for him the glass was designed withstand to hold against a raging Berserker and an Ethereal Psionic powers so it was useless act. Dr. Vahlen just looked at the werewolf with an emotionless face as the blast doors closes and the howl of a wolf could be heard.

**Timeskip**

In one of the rooms Dr. Vahlen is currently typing on her datapad when she notice Bradford approaching her, she look back and greeted him who returned the gesture

"So Doc? How did it go?" Bradford said

"Better than expected. Before the creature expired, I was able to extract some new information from it" Dr. Vahlen said "Certain patterns can be discerned, recent images and thoughts."

"So Doc, what`s our late friend thinking?" Bradford asked

"This particular image appeared in the creature`s thought patterns several times throughout the procedure." Dr. Vahlen said while gesturing to the screen hanged on the wall which shows pixelated colossal mountain with its peak covered by clouds and a dense forest with a river running by. "I have sent the image to be enhanced however it's these readings that intrigue me the most."

With a press from her data pad, the screen showed a different image this time. Bradford wasn't sure what his looking at… to him it's just waves and lines.

"What am I looking at Doc?"Bradford questioned

"The brainwaves of the specimen which was being monitored throughout the procedure, we were able to caught two different repeating patterns" Dr. Vahlen explained "My team is able to decipher these patterns… It roughly translate to _Gensokyo and Youkai_ although I cannot explain why the specimen holds a personal significance to these words, However further study revealed that this word _Youkai_ is a reference from the Japanese Folklore."

Dr. Vahlen continued to explain to Bradford of her discoveries, which took half an hour before Bradford leave the room to write his report to the Commander. While Dr. Vahlen continues studying and researching of the new discoveries found.

* * *

**Situation Room**

**"Greetings Commander" Spokesman said "The Council is disturbed by the reports regarding this _werewolf_. While the Council is still skeptical of this, The Council will trust Doctor Vahlen`s report. It`s capabilities could pose a greater threat to Humanity. The Extraterrestrials despite their mastery in genetic manipulation were not able to create something that could easily infiltrate deep in Human Society."**

The Commander and Bradford agreed in silently despite the Aliens attempt to infiltrate Humanity its Agents still stand out and can be easily spotted.

**"The Council has agreed to return XCOM original budget" Spokesman said "The Council task you to discover more about this enemy. It is imperative that Humanity must be ready against them should they ever be a threat."**

"Yes spokesman, I will have a teams` ready on standby if _his friends_ appear" The Commander said

**"One more thing Commander, the Council inquires on what will be the name given to this new Enemy?" Spokesman inquired**

The Commander and Bradford looked at each other before nodding

"The research team has officially agreed upon on the name given to them." The Commander paused for a moment "We have begun officially calling their Classification as **Youkai**."

**"Very well Commander, Good Luck" Spokesman said before cutting the transmission**

* * *

**Laboratory**

Doctor Shen, Doctor Vahlen and Central Officer Bradford are currently discussing the proposal that Dr. Vahlen suggested

"You`re telling me that we should risk the lives of our troops, so we could bring another one alive?" Bradford asked clearly not amused

"Yes. Without another live specimen, I`m afraid we`ve reached the pinnacle of what my research team is able to accomplish."

"Was the first one wasn`t enough?" Bradford put his hands on the table

"The autopsy I`ve just completed confirms that this werewolf physiology is quite slightly similar to our own on how it functions." Dr. Vahlen then point towards the nearby screen which display the findings "However what intrigue me the most is this unknown energy that the werewolf exhibits inside its body and capable of utilizing it to fire that lightning attack."

"Do you really think this is worth the risk?" Bradford argued

"I do" Dr. Shen interrupted them "We do not know our new enemy. How can we hope to stop something we do not understand? If we could capture another one of those creatures we may be able to solve the mystery behind this _energy_ and harness it for our own use _._ "

"The possibility of benefits we could discover outweighs the risk; in my opinion" Dr. Shen continued "I can improve the Alien Containment Facility to prevent any possible attempts of our new enemy from escaping and improve as well the Arc Thrower to increase its effectiveness."

"Do we even know where to look for another one?" Bradford asked

"I believe the answer to that question lies to this Gensokyo that appears several time." Dr. Vahlen answered "An investigation or recon mission to that place could help us solve mysteries regarding the Youkai."

"All right, I`ll speak to the Commander" Bradford said as he slowly exit the room leaving Dr. Shen and Dr. Vahlen alone

**TIMESKIP**

**XCOM Commander Office**

The Commander is currently managing the paperworks on his table while sipping his coffee from time to time, he pause when he heard a knock from the door

"Come in" Commander said and saw Bradford coming in"So any good news?" He returned the salute before gesturing to the seat near his table

"Dr. Vahlen has suggested to sent a team to capture another one alive" Bradford said

"Deja vu" The Commander replied with a small smile "Assuming I approve of her request does she know where to find another one?" He set aside the paperwork and looked at Bradford "If it was aliens we can easily find one compared to this"

"According to Dr. Vahlen, she theorized that this Gensokyo that appear several times alongside the word Youkai is somehow a location, a place of operation." Bradford explained to the Commander "If this is true then the answers for our questions must be in this _Gensokyo_."

"Very well she makes a very convincing argument besides the Council will want updates about it." Commander said "I will approve this operation if the following objectives are met before I send my soldiers. First, find a way inside this Gensokyo. Second, tell that to upgrade much of the current gear and lastly, I want reports regarding about the werewolf and the effects of our current weaponry against this new threat in papers before the end of the week."

"Very well, Commander I will tell Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Shen your orders" Bradford said and saluted then leaves the room

"This is going to be a busy week" The Commander muttered to himself, sipped his coffee and resume doing the paperwork on his table

* * *

**Few Days Later**

**Situation Room**

Doctor Shen and Central Officer Bradford were currently discussing the recent findings found by Doctor Vahlen who was currently on a video call from her laboratory as she was busy looking over at the artifact they found with the werewolf

"The Commander has agreed to approve of your request once the objectives are complete" Bradford said "Aside from the last two objectives, which could be easily done. The First one is hard; I hope you have a solution to locating this Gensokyo or finding hints on what those words means, Doctor."

_"While I don`t have a definite answer to how to find the place or its definition."Dr. Vahlen said "The artifact recovered from the werewolf seems hold great importance; this artifact may be the key to locating the place or even finding hints about it."_

"The artifact what is it really?" Bradford asked

" _The artifact the team recover while physically appear to be some sort of a combination between a Key and a Blade as its handle is similar to that of a Key handle while its body is similar to that of a blade with cuts like the one you found on certain keys. My team is unofficially calling it Blade Key,_ " Dr. Vahlen explained _"What intrigue us the most is the mysterious energy reading that is being detected by scans emitted by the Blade Key."_

"This energy readings is it similar to the Outsider we faced before?" Bradford asked "Can we trace it?"

_"While not the same energy reading as the Outsider but exhibit certain similarities." Dr. Vahlen said "It appears to be resonating very faintly, as for a possible tracing the energy is…" words were cut when a Scientist interrupted her, showing her something while handing the datapad to her, she read the new information given to her by her fellow colleague then give it back "Pardon the pause, it seems we have a new discovery found."_

_"The artifact seems to be sending a signal." continued "It will take some time before my team able crack the code, its behavior is far from the Outsider Shard we encounter but every now and then we encounter some similarities."_

"Perhaps I could lend my expertise, Doctor. If what she saying is true, this artifact is now sending a signal, one where we could use to trace where the signals are being received." Dr. Shen said "I will have my colleague handle if they there is an encryption algorithm while I will focus constructing an Interface between this artifact and our global communications array, which we`ll need to trace the signal"

"Then researching more about this Artifact is our top priority." Bradford said "Do you think the same container and interface we use for locating the Alien Base could work?"

"Based from the preliminary reports by Dr. Vahlen, it could work but we need to modify it in order for the artifact and interface to work." said

**Time Skip Few Weeks**

**Situation Room**

A Scientist was carrying the container that held the Blade Key, behind him was Dr. Vahlen following. The Scientist put the artifact on the scanner made by Dr. Shen to determine the coordinates on where the signal is being received. The process took several minutes before the screen displayed a set of coordinates.

"There you are. Tactical, do we have an eagle over these coordinates?" Bradford asked through the radio on his headset

"RECON satellite Delta two`s just coming into line-of-sight… now sir, Coming on-screen."XCOM Staff replied. The screen showed area but found nothing aside the mountainous terrain according to the Satellite feed

"Nothing… just like with Alien Base" Bradford said "Switch to thermal" still no changes

"Try scanning for any possible distortions" Dr. Vahlen suggested "If my theory is correct, they must be using some sort of advance cloaking field, try to find similar readings to that of the artifact."

The operator did what the Doctor suggested once green lighted by Bradford. Began typing on his console as the sound could be heard in the comm. channel

"Sir, There is still nothing on the sensors…" XCOM Staff said and suddenly paused on what he`s saying "Wait, I am detecting something, something very faint… displaying on-screen now." A large section of the map highlighted "I can't estimate its size Sir, the computer giving me changing values."

Bradford said to the screen "Do we have any topography of the area?"

"Negative sir, penetrating scans are reporting static" XCOM Staff replied "Even Subsurface scans are somehow being jammed by unknown source."

Bradford quickly contacted the Commander discussing about a possible mission into the area while the two doctors look at the area highlighted in the screen

"What do you think jamming our scans?" Dr. Shen asked the XCOM Staff

"Some kind of barrier that we have yet to determine" XCOM Staff said

"A barrier capable of blocking scans as well as evading any known detection methods." Dr. Vahlen said "To think they have something like that could hide a large area. If it wasn't for the readings the artifact displayed we wouldn't have found this place. Our Scanners barely detected it despite the Scanners is equipped with the best technology humanity could produce and reverse engineer from the alien technology."

"Okay, the Commander is asking on how would be able to get inside?" Bradford interrupted the two Doctor

"The same method we used when we attack the Alien Base" Dr. Shen said as they began to follow his gaze which landed on the Artifact

* * *

**Next Day Morning**

**Engineering**

The Commander was passing by the Engineering when Dr. Shen spotted him and made a gesture to come closer while the Commander wasn't busy so he decided to see what the Doctor needs

"Good Day Commander" Dr. Shen greeted "I was about to come your office to talk about our weapons upgrade since you`re here I will give you a rundown." He gestured to talk in his office which just a few steps from where they are standing, once they got in and settle down "I have Dr. Vahlen run an analysis view of what we discovered while reviewing the footage taken from the helmet-cams of Strike team including the SHIV that was with them."

Dr. Shen turned the screen towards the Commander so he could see what the Doctor was referring "As you can see Commander, We discovered that our Laser Technology wouldn`t do well against this newly named Youkai … Based on the footage, and seem to possess a rapid-healing capability or damage reduction ability." zoomed near a part of the body of werewolf specifically the hand "It was hit by our Laser Sniper Rifle, you can see that there is slight change in the skin coloration mimicking that of a slightly burned skin but after several seconds it was gone" showed the Commander what he was referring

"This is very concerning, what about our Plasma weaponry?" He asked

"That is the good news Commander" showed the footage of the SHIV hitting the werewolf on the chest and Strike-1 scored hits on the werewolf left leg and near its hip "As you can see, there is a clear burned mark on closer inspection on the affected areas, it only began healing after the subject was brought to the Alien Containment Facility" showed another footage of the werewolf being escorted towards the containment area "According to Dr. Vahlen, she theorized that the high temperature of the Plasma somehow temporarily knock the werewolf regenerative abilities or its slow down to an unknown rate."

"Atleast we know we have a fighting chance against them." The Commander said and noticed wasn`t finish talking

"As for the SHIV, we were able to a critical flaw on its design that was overlooked. The Engineering already started fixing our current SHIVs and looking for anymore possible flaws." Dr. Shen continued "As for the SHIVs effectiveness against our new foe, there performance is similar to that of the Alien Invaders."

Dr. Shen showed the improvements his team was able to achieve to the Commander to the upcoming mission. He also showed the Commander several project proposals that could improve XCOM Combat capabilities although the Commander will think about those proposals.

**Armory**

Five People walk in the Armory; making XCOM staffs that are responsible in the maintenance of the Armory look at awe at these five individuals some even give way to these people. Who were they? They are known as Alpha Team, the Best of the Best XCOM has to offer equip with the latest gadgets the R&D could dream, they are the ones who lead the assault at the Temple Ship and the ones responsible of killing the Alien Leader known as Uber Ethereal

The first member of Alpha Team, the leader of the team and a native of Mexico, his name is Cesar Flores, call sign " **Mad Dog** ". He is an Assault Class specialist, whose primary role is aggressive reconnaissance, flanking and drawing enemy fire. The armor he wears the Ghost Armor the only stealth armor design by XCOM based upon phase-shifts observe in the hyperwave beacon and capable turning the user invincible to the naked eye for a limited amount of time when activated and makes the user difficult to hit.

His weapons load out consist of Alloy Cannon as his primary weapon and Plasma Pistol secondary weapon. The Alloy Cannon is a shotgun where it fires machined shards of alien alloy, an extremely powerful weapon that has devastating effect on anything caught in range it manage to penetrate two meters thick modified ballistic gel without problem however, accuracy falls off quickly over greater distances. Plasma Pistol fires a lethal shot of ionized gas in an artificially generated magnetic field capable of performing far beyond the capabilities of any projectile based sidearm.

He also undergone Genetic enhancement which gives him tactical advantage in the battlefield. His enhancement are the following, **Neural Damping** which give protection against some psionic based attacks, It also prevents him from being mind control although the drawback is that it he is successfully mind control, this gene mod will render him unconscious for small amount of time which is dangerous during a firefight. **Depth Perception** gives him better aim on high ground elevations. **Adrenal Neurosympathy** triggers when he eliminates an enemy, this allows him to channel a Combat Pheromone cloud then releases in his surrounding that boost nearby allies stats affected by it. **Bioelectric Skin** acts as extrasensory like ability that detects enemies within a short distance even they are block by walls or cloak, it also prevent strangulation. **Muscle Fiber Density** confers him superhuman leg strength, enabling him to reach high position without need for ladders and climbing aids.

The Second member is a native from Mexico. Her name is Patricia Delgado, call sign " ** _Zero_** ". She is the resident sniper of the team providing long range standoff, force multiplier and supporting Overwatch against enemy units. Her armor resembles that of the Titan Armor but with a difference, it has propulsion system on the back and behind the knees giving the user limited flight capabilities.

Her weapons load out include the Plasma Sniper Rifle and the Plasma Pistol. The Plasma Sniper Rifle was based on rail-gun technology by supercharging the gas particle into plasma and then propels the charge away at great velocity, delivering an extremely powerful shot at previously unheard distance.

Patricia Delgado has similar Genetic Enhancement to **Mad Dog** with the exception of two Gene Mods. Instead of **Adrenal Neurosympathy** and **Bioelectric Skin** she has **Secondary Heart** which extends the crucial time before the soldier to die from blood loss and other fatal injuries and **Mimetic Skin** confers the ability to change her skin pattern to match cover it will not work however if the enemy have line of sight to her starting position also leaving cover or firing will break her concealment.

The Third member of the team is a former Triad Operative. Cropped white hair and Goatee he has a scar over his right eye and another on his right cheek. His name is Shaojie Zhang, call sign " ** _Chilong_** ". He is a Heavy Weapons specialist responsible for deploying high explosive munitions against the enemy. Primarily relying on a shoulder mounted rocket launcher for both offensive strikes and the demolition of obstacles. His armor that he equips on deployment is the Titan Armor, the strongest and toughest armor built by XCOM capable of withstanding shots from a Sectopod.

His weapons of choice are the Heavy Plasma, A machine gun firing plasma bolts capable of melting steel and destroying concrete walls, the second weapon is the Blaster Launcher, an upgrade over the standard rocket launcher XCOM uses, Can fire self-guiding rockets capable of navigating to its intended target without direct line-of-sight which is only possible by integrating the advanced alien navigation systems to the weapon.

Shaojie Zhang has a similar Genetic Enhancement with **Mad Dog** with the exception of **Depth of Perception**. Instead he has **Hyper Reactive Pupils** confers the ability to automatically adjust his aiming if his first few shots misses.

The Fourth member of the team is a young Japanese woman with medium-length black hair. Her name is Misaki Ishikawa, call sign " ** _Septic_** ". Is part of the Mechanized Exoskeletal Cybersuit or MEC for short, She volunteers to become a MEC Trooper because she got gravely injured on one of her missions which would leave her disable for life but she wishes to continue fighting against the Extraterrestrials, she asked Dr. Shen if she could become a MEC trooper, however warned her that there is no going back on her decision she also went a Psych evaluation to help her prepare her mind. She undergoes a surgery which sacrifices much of her lower body replacing the part below the head with robot or exoskeleton body. Physically her body is stronger than its organic counterpart and could run faster but the real weapon of the MEC Troopers is the MEC suit, which are powerful battle suits that mount an array of useful weaponry and support equipment, it can easily be customize to fit specific tactical approaches. The battle suits are usually 2.5 to 3 meters tall.

She uses the MEC-3 Paladin; the plating and materials used on the MEC armor is similar to that of the Titan Armor. The MEC-3 Paladin is also equipped with three Tactical Subsystems. First is the Kinetic Strike Module on the MEC`s right arm, it allows her to pulverize adjacent cover and punch enemies hard that they are sent flying by a few meters. Second, A Grenade Launcher attach on the back to help her act as an indirect artillery for her team by eliminating entrenched enemy forces or removing their cover, it has a capacity of three Grenades. Third, is the Electro Pulse which is located just beside the Grenade Launcher it releases an EMP around the MEC that disables robotic enemies for a limited amount of time within a 2 meter radius which is use against the Alien Robotic Units namely Sectopod, Mechtoid, Cyberdisc, Seeker and Drones who usually appears on corners during missions.

Her Primary weapon is the Particle Cannon a burst-style particle beam, while it lack a rate of fire compare to the previous weapons of MEC like the Railgun and Minigun but it`s destructive power make up for it, capable of demolishing heavily armored enemies in few shots. .

The Fifth member of the team is a young French woman with medium-length brunette hair, a former captive of the aliens. Her name is Annette Durand with powerful psionic abilities, has a call sign " ** _Rabbit_** " and a soldier trained in the Support class which serve as both a field medic and logistic support to the squad which ensure the safe return of the squad in the field. She is wearing similar to that of a Ghost Armor in design but this armor is called Psi- Armor which provide boost to the Psionic power of the user.

She is armed with a Plasma Rifle and Plasma Pistol as her primary and secondary weapons. The Plasma Rifle fires a jet of ionized gas through a focus magnetic field.

Annette Durand, Genetic Enhancement is similar to the team resident sniper Patricia Delgado.

The Sixth slot of the Team remains empty, to honor the previous holder of his sacrifice during the final battle against the Extraterrestrial, his sacrifice save Earth and Humanity from the explosion generated by the Temple Ship. The Commander honored the wishes of Alpha Team to not fill the last member slot.

"Everyone good?" Mad Dog asked which his team nodded "Let`s not keep Big Sky waiting in the hangar" Alpha Team leaves the Armory with the XCOM Staff giving them a Salute as they pass by them

* * *

**Mission Control**

"Alpha Team, You are being deployed near Yatsugatake Mountains. Few weeks ago we received intel that alien abductions are happening in that area, Strike Team was sent to investigate and found this." Bradford said and shows the picture of the werewolf Strike Team found "Dr. Vahlen believes somewhere in the mountain where it was first spotted is the entrance or clues to this _Gensokyo_ that the werewolf mentioned. Your Objective is to assess the area if possible and find another specimen for Dr. Vahlen."

"Be careful Alpha Team, We have no Intel of the area or the possible numbers they may have. So proceed with caution" Bradford Continued then switch communication channel address to the pilot of the Skyranger "Big Sky, Are scanners working and not giving you any problems?"

**"Central, this is Big Sky all scanners are working and all green." Big Sky said**

"We read you, Big Sky." Bradford answered "I just hope Dr. Vahlen hasn't put much weight on your bird?"

**"Negative Central, I can still fly the bird." Big Sky said "Although I felt it got fatter from the weight of the added equipment."**

The mission was set to begin few days ago however said that she needed to have the Skyranger equipped with sensors to record the activities of the Blade Key attach on the ceiling inside the aircraft which was in between the Pilot and Passengers. This put a setback but the Engineering team managed to finish the task. Central Officer Bradford was looking at the live camera feed provided by Skyranger as it approached the Area of Operations

"Dr. Vahlen apologizes for making your baby fat, Big Sky but she was very persuasive in her words." Bradford joked and gives a small smile to Dr. Vahlen who was beside him as they watch the live feed of Skyranger as it flies, along with the rest of the staff at Mission Control laughed at the joke. Dr. Vahlen was shaking her head at the joke at her expense but it sure slightly lighten the mood.

**"Central, this is Big Sky we`re coming into range" Big Sky said "Currently looking for a spot to land." Big Sky then suddenly panicked "Central, readings from the artifact suddenly spike, Alpha-1 contacted me the artifact is glowing at increasing intensity. Advise over?"**

Before Bradford could reply back, the Skyranger disappear from the map even the screen that shows the live feed from the Skyranger is now only display **NO SIGNAL** , this cause several of the XCOM staff manning the consoles on mission control to panic

"Sir we`ve lost contact with Big Sky" XCOM Staff reported

"Did you pick any mayday signal?" Bradford said "Any indication that the Skyranger was destroyed?"

"No sir, the moment they entered the area, they just disappear from radar, any attempt we made to reestablish contact was met with failure, it includes the tracking device aboard the aircraft." XCOM staff said "It`s like they disappear from the face of the Earth"

"Do we have any Satellites watching their approach?" Bradford asked

The personnel began typing of series of commands to his console before looking at Bradford and said "Yes Sir, RECON satellite Delta two was on the area monitoring"

"Show it" Bradford said before the screen displays the reply. They saw the Skyranger continue to fly and at a certain point suddenly disappear like it went invisible all of the sudden "Magnify on the spot where the Skyranger disappeared and slow down the video" The screen zoomed to the point they could clearly see the top view of the aircraft as it slowly disappear with a ripple or distortion like effect surrounding the aircraft

"Dr. Vahlen, any explanation to the disappearance of Big Sky?" Bradford asked the Doctor who was busy looking at the datapad she is holding probably analyzing the situation

"It looks like that Skyranger entered a barrier of some kind" She said like she was uncertain of her answer "I theorize that the artifact we attached inside the Skyranger reacted to this barrier and let the aircraft in."

"Remember that prior to the mission, we have sent several recon planes and drones to the area to scout yet nothing similar happened" Dr. Vahlen continued "They were all equip with best scanners and cameras that the Engineering team could build."

"So you're telling me Doctor, that the artifact worked?"

"As I said, whatever the barrier is made of, it is powerful enough to keep things out and avoid most of the detection methods we use."

People in the Mission Control could only watch the pause video of Skyranger with half of its body slowly disappears, they could only hope for the survival of Big Sky and Alpha Team as they are inside enemy territory with no possible reinforcement to rescue them and communications cut off.

* * *

**Somewhere in Tokyo**

**"BREAKING NEWS… Possible Remaining Aliens in Japan, on Yatsugatake Mountains" Plastered on every electronic billboard as the News Anchor deliver the news**

A person was sipping her milkshake as she looks at the news being presented by a news Anchor which garnered the attention of every passerby in the streets and cafes. This person was wearing a deep purple dress, a pale pink mob cap with a thin red ribbon and smaller ribbons tied liberally on her accessories and the tips of her hair, on the table was paper fan and beside her is a pink lace parasol

"Seems, the humans began taking more of an active approach to this so called _alien_. " She commented with a sighed "It will be only matter of time before they will find out about that _place._ "

"The world began to recover its lost energy enough to make a livable condition but far compared to the ancient past" She added still talking herself with a low voice that no one could hear

"Once a fragmented race always arguing with each other on senseless topics, exploiting the powerless where power is might creating a cruel world" She said stirring her milkshake "The arrival of the invaders change it, when this new foe emerge and declared war against humanity, they starting to unite under a _single banner_ and the weapons they carefully constructed to control their own baser instinct were now not aimed at themselves but against a deadly opponent in pursuit of a shared goal, the very survival of Humanity. " She finished her milkshake and picked up her things before exiting the café and casually walks down a few blocks and turns right to an alley away from people

"Humanity began to recover and rebuild what they lost, yet instead of a divided front they began helping each other while the distrust may not disappear overnight it is a start for something new. " She mused to herself "Humanity has come a long way"

**"The Government has urged the public to remain calm as the military will deal with these Aliens on Japanese soil, the United States of America is willing to lend military assistance to affected allies" The News Anchor said "The Prime Minister will give a Statement regarding this issue tonight"**

"A truly interesting era that we live in" She said before a distortion or gap appeared in front of her and walked inside of it without alerting any persons nearby "Yet, I wonder where will _we_ fit in this new era." she said with a small sad tone on her voice before going inside the gap

**VIGILO CONFIDO**

**End of Chapter 2**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Pretty sure you guys know, who is the lady on the last scene of the chapter
> 
> Describing Alpha Team is basically the hardest I written. If anyone asked how they look like, I leave it to your imagination on how they look like with the exception of Annette Durand and Shaojie Zhang (Chilong) since they have images you can find on XCOM wiki or in the game.
> 
> Special Thanks to my Friend who Beta read the chapter


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both story on FFN and Ao3 will be update at the same time when Chapter 4 is ready.
> 
> Alpha Team:  
> Cesar Flores (Assault)  
> Patricia Delgado (Sniper)  
> Shaojie Zhang (Heavy)  
> Misaki Ishikawa (MEC)  
> Annette Durand (Support)
> 
> Note:  
> [SPELLCARDS/Spell cards usage]

**Chapter 3**

**Somewhere in Gensokyo**

" **Mayday, Mayday, Mayday this is Big Sky designation Voodoo Three-One**." Big Sky said " **I've lost control of my aircraft and losing altitude, is** **anyone reading this?** "

A grayish aircraft can be seen, in a nose dive and is losing altitude rapidly, the pilot Big Sky tried to regain control of the aircraft, Big Sky didn't know what happened, as he was talking to Central on a landing spot the controls started to glow and suddenly lost all communication and control of the aircraft. Big Sky, with luck and skill managed to regain aircraft control of the aircraft and pulled up at the right moment with the landing gear taking most of the brunt of the hard landing, crashing through several trees before finally stopping.

"You kids okay?" Big Sky asked the occupants in the back

"Were fine here Big Sky" A male voice answered "Any explanation for the crash?"

"I don't know Alpha-1 but, my controls were toasted, the moment we entered something." Big Sky commented "It will take me some time to fix it, assuming I CAN fix it". Big Sky pressed several buttons and the rear door opened "Check the place out, while I try to contact HQ"

Three people came out of the aircraft, while forming a semi circle position near the ramp before signaling the remaining members to exit.

"Central, come in over" Cesar said trying to raise XCOM HQ "Big Sky do you have any luck on contacting them?"

"Still static, this means we're on our own, for now." Big Sky said on the radio "Local connection for the radios is still online, just don't get too far."

"Big Sky, try to check the Sky Ranger for any problems that caused the crash and if it's possible for you to repair it." Cesar ordered "My team will try to secure the perimeter in the meantime, before possibly going on extensive recon. The noise of the crash may have attracted some unwanted attention."

The team checks their weapons for any damages before heading out with the exception of Misaki, as she volunteered to stay behind to guard the Sky Ranger and the pilot Big Sky. Alpha team performed a 50 meter radius perimeter check with the Sky Ranger as the center point, It took them half an hour to complete as they had to make sure the perimeter is secured, they also noted down any natural landmarks they can use to help them navigate in the future, as well any possible food source and a fall back point they could use just in case. They then returned to the Sky Ranger.

"Okay so far no natives have been curious about the crash. Now, unto present matters, from what we've gathered so far the Sky Ranger crash landed on the edge of a forest." Cesar explained to the team "The rest of the area surrounding us, is a wide open field with the exception of the forest beside us."

"So we're stuck here for the moment" Zhang said as he looked around "So this is Gensokyo, I never expected this place to be filled with so much nature, perfect for hiking or camping."

"Hate to admit it but, this place seems to be a pretty good vacation spot" Annette said "I was expecting anti-air guns shooting at us the moment we entered or a large number of aliens converging on our position, yet this place is so peaceful."

"Non-important issues aside, what about our food and ammo?" Patricia asked "If we're staying here for the time being, then it's best to know if we can hold our ground."

"The Commander has supplied us with one box full of food and two boxes worth of ammo for your weapons but, spare parts for maintenance or repair of your weapons are not included." Big Sky answered "Food is worth two days of consumption for all of us, three to five days if we rationed it assuming some of the food doesn't spoil by day 3."

"There is also a river nearby which means we got a possible supply of fish and fresh water, should our food stocks run out, not counting what plants we can forage near our position." Cesar said "I'll go check the ammunition box on how much ammo we have, later."

"So Big Sky, can you repair the Sky Ranger?" Cesar asked the pilot

"Because I'm not walking back to base from here" Annette joked with the others laughing along "Assuming we CAN get out of this place in one piece."

"Luck's on our side as the damage isn't that severe, I can give it a band aid fix just enough to fly us out of here." Big Sky said "It will take two days to finish it, assuming we'll not have any unwanted visitors."

"So what's the plan boss?" Patricia asked Cesar "Let's put recon on hold for now, we can start tomorrow" Cesar said to the team "For now, we will consolidate our position to defend against any possible attack from the natives. The Sky Ranger is our only way out, we **MUST PROTECT IT**."

With that said, Cesar began instructing the jobs they will do for the meantime, Misaki uses the Kinetic Strike Module (KSM) to break few trees to serve as fuel for the campfire as well as removing any possible obstacles within a twenty meter radius of their position, in order to deny any possible enemy advance against Alpha team, and to cover any possible ambush spots, while the plan has its advantages it also has its disadvantages, like how the enemy can spot them from afar.

To address this problem, Cesar and Zhang used the extra pieces of logs that won't be used as campfire fuel as makeshift cover and defensive positions around the Sky Ranger, which they can use as a protection against enemy fire. They set up the campfire along with the necessary things needed to build a camp, although they had to make use of what materials were available.

Annette and Patricia are currently on sentry duty sitting on top of the Sky ranger keeping an eye out to make sure any uninvited guests stay uninvited. Big Sky is currently unloading the boxes that contain their ammo and food supply from the Sky Ranger.

**TimeSkip**

Alpha Team along with the pilot Big Sky are sitting outside the Sky Ranger, gathered around the campfire while eating the rations that were given to them prior to the mission

"Good thing the Commander let us carry some food and ammo before departing"

Big Sky said, as he chewed the food which is a simple sandwich with veggies and meat "Who knew we would be stuck in this place, for the time being." Zhang, Annette and Big Sky happily chat about their experiences in the past that's similar to the current situation.

"Hate to interrupt the conversation but, I need your attention for the moment." Cesar said "Everyone here knows the situation."

"I like to think of this as just one of those unplanned vacations in the middle of nowhere, filled with everything hostile to humans." Patricia joked to lighten mood

"I know of several places that fit that description." Zhang added, The group laughs at the joke before going back to the original discussion.

"So what's the objective tomorrow?" Annette asked as she looked towards Cesar

"We'll continue our objective given by Central; we scout as much of the land, and look for another specimen for Dr. Vahlen and probably some samples from this place. Luckily Central managed to provide us with some containers to secure the samples." Cesar said "The current places of interest are the huge mountain and the ominous forest beside us however the list may be expanded during the recon."

"Let's also scout the huge flower field near our position and the village on the other side of this forest." Big Sky suggested "Prior to the hard landing, I managed to get a glimpse of these places in the air, I never managed to get clear details but, luckily with the Sky Ranger's camera managed to capture images of those places, while they may not be of the highest quality, it still gives you some places worth looking into."

"Places of Interest aside, what about engagement rules?" Patricia asked

"Considering we landed on a hostile territory, we engage IF necessary." Cesar said "The number of possible hostiles in this area is unknown, additionally the hostiles will have a home-field advantage against us, so it's imperative that we avoid drawing too much unwanted attention at least until we can get out of here."

The team finishes their dinner followed by Cesar assigning someone for guard duty for the night while the others rest.

* * *

**Next Day**

**Forest of Magic**

**Morning**

The group arrives at the entrance of the forest, which is a short distance from their campsite.

"Okay team we're about to enter this ominous forest." Cesar addressed his team "I want everyone to make sure their helmets are sealed and check your weapons for any problems."

The members nodded and began checking their equipment, afterwards they proceeded into the forest. The group walks deeper into the forest, when notifications pop up in their HUD.

"Keep your helmets sealed." Cesar reminded the squad "There's a high concentration of hallucinogenic substances in the air." The group continues their trek while staying cautious of their surroundings, as the forest is a perfect spot for an ambush.

"Annette, you kept looking at the SHIV for a while now, care to share your thoughts?" Zhang asked

"The shovel bothers me." Annette answered "I can understand the plasma torch and circular saw but why would it need a shovel?" They looked at the SHIV following them "It's not like some alien artifacts are buried and need to be dug up."

The SHIV is a modified Hover SHIV, instead of having a weapon, it has four robotic arms in place where the weapon should be, the first arm is a plasma torch used to cut metals, it is capable of cutting through alien alloys given enough time. The second Arm has a circular saw attached to it, used to cut non-metallic things like wood or composites. The third arm has a standard claw design, with the purpose of grabbing or holding. The fourth arm is a mini-shovel, and lastly attached to the back of the SHIV is a hovering cart for storing the collected samples. The SHIV's objective is to gather any interesting artifacts and samples from Gensokyo.

"Send your questions to the Engineering team" Zhang answered

The group continued deeper into the ominous forest, walking for several minutes and they have yet to encounter any youkai, this puts them on the edge, as silence usually means an ambush might happen at any moment in the dark corners of the forest. They encountered several mushrooms and plants that were very unfamiliar, so they let the SHIV-Companion do the sample gathering while they look around the ominous forest.

"Hey guys, I found a weird looking plant." Misaki shouted. The group saw a plant on a nearby tree, it had a head armed with razor sharp teeth and did not look friendly.

"Reminds of that plant in one of those video games involving an Italian plumber that you'd usually play during your spare time" Zhang said to Annette who just nodded in agreement

"I think we found a meaner version of the Venus fly trap" Cesar said "I am may not be an expert on plants, but it's safe to say that its hostile to humans and is capable of eating one with those razor sharp teeth." He motioned to the SHIV to approach the plant "I'm pretty sure Vahlen would love these samples we're bringing her, it might not be some advanced alien tech but a live man-eating plant."

The SHIV approached the plant when it was directly in front of it, the plant suddenly bites the SHIV, although the teeth failed to penetrate the armor, still it would not release the SHIV and tried to chew in hopes to eat the SHIV or some parts of it.

The SHIV simply raised its robotic arm with a shovel and started pummeling the plant to submission, when the plant was somewhat unconscious, the SHIV started digging it out then replanting it into the cart that already had a soil sample, after that it simply moved on to the giant mushrooms nearby.

"That's one scary SHIV" Misaki said "Do you think the Engineering team overdid the coding of its Artificial Intelligence?"

"Pretty sure it's loaded in its self-defense protocol." Patricia said, still looking at the SHIV observing the giant mushrooms

"Anyone wonder how we're going to get a sample of the giant mushroom?" Annette asked "I am pretty sure it can fit in the Sky Ranger but the problem is how to preserve it."

"We can cut some parts of it." Misaki said "But knowing Vahlen would be asking why we didn't bring the whole plant."

"We can always argue it wouldn't fit in the Sky Ranger along with the other samples." Zhang said and poked the giant mushroom with the tip of his weapon then the mushroom released a purple cloud of smoke one meter around it. On instinct, Zhang quickly back-pedaled and managed to avoid the smoke.

"Old man you okay?" Annette asked Zhang who just gave a thumb up

"Best if we leave the touching of unknown things to the SHIV." Patricia remarked as she looked at the effects of the smoke "Because we don't want to test its effect on our armor."

The smoke discharge from the mushroom melted few leaves in the bushes that come in contact with the smoke. So they abandon any attempt to gather the big mushroom and proceed back on the trail.

**Timeskip**

After an hour of trekking in the forest, the team encounters several hostile floras and they were able to dispatch them with no effort, they then see a building nearby and approached it.

The team discovers what seems to be a house of European-style with its brown walls and black rooftop with several vines growing all around it. Cesar and Annette approached the house while the rest remained hidden in the trees nearby.

The two slowly walked to the front door before Cesar began knocking on the door.

"Hello is anyone here?" Cesar said and knocked at the door three times "Anyone home?" He repeated to knock again but no one answered.

"Maybe no one's home?" Annette suggested

"Try to get a peek inside." Cesar said

Annette began observing the inside of the house but failed to get even a glimpse due to the dust covering the windows, she tried brushing off the dust then tried peeking again and found several things scattered inside the house then she tried adjusting her angles to get a better look on the contents of the house.

"Boss, there seems to be no one in the house but there are several other things inside." Annette said on the radio "It seems whoever owns this house doesn't know how to arrange stuff in an orderly manner."

"Should we try to enter unannounced?" Annette asked

"I am not sure if we should try to take a peek inside the house or just leave it alone." Cesar said "Let's go find another place instead."

Cesar turned his back and began walking away when the door slowly opened. This quickly gets an immediate reaction from Cesar as he pointed his weapon at the opened door but saw no one. He slowly approaches the door and look for traps inside before stepping in.

"Boss, what's going on?" Annette asked "I heard the door open."

Cesar looked around and saw mountain piles of junk around the room, he could hardly guess if this was a living room or some sort of warehouse due to the amount of junk scattered. He looked back and saw Annette coming in by the door after failing to reply to her question.

"This place looks like a landfill." Annette gazed "Hey is that a Smartphone."

"Annette stop picking up random things, we don't want the junk to cause a landslide." Cesar ordered

"So what now boss?" Annette said "Doors don't just open randomly unless the house is haunted."

"Is anyone inside this house?" Cesar asked in a loud voice "We apologize if we just barged in… we assume that you opened the door to let us in. We mean you no harm and just want to talk like civilized people."

No reply was given and only the sound of crickets outside can be heard.

The two continued navigating around the room with difficulty due to junk littered across the floor and Annette almost got buried by a mountain pile of junk when she tripped.

Few minutes later, they noticed a strange glow coming from one of the rooms and went to inspect it. When they entered the room, they noticed it was a workshop of some kind and in the center of the room was a big cauldron and to its right is a table.

On top of the table were vials that were filled with different colors of liquid and neatly arranged inside a rack, beside it were cut plant parts and mushrooms.

"This room looks similar to a witch workshop in the movies." Annette commented "Do you think a witch lives in this house?"

"Until we can find a clear proof that witches exist and not just some person who studies random stuff in the forest." Cesar approached the table and looked at the arranged vials, then noticed a paper beneath the rack, he gently picks it up. His helmet tried to translate the words written on the paper but it manages to translate only a few words.

"Hallucinogenic... make... step 1?" Cesar read what words he could understand. Cesar quickly folds the paper and gathers the vials then he motioned Annette to leave the house but, before leaving the room he notices a leather book near the cauldron with English words written on it " **Advance Barrier Creation** ". He decided to take the book with him. The two later regroup with the rest of Alpha team and tell what they found inside the house.

Several minutes later, a blonde haired girl in a witch outfit arrived at the house. She enters the house and notices that some of the mountain piles of junk have collapsed and the door leading to her workshop was open.

"What happened here?" She said with a confused expression.

* * *

**Youkai Mountain**

The XCOM team went back to their camp to drop off the samples, restock ammo, and get some lunch before proceeding towards the mountain. After an hour of walking they managed to reach the base of the mountain then proceeded to climb the mountain using a mountain path. It took them 45 minutes to reach halfway up the mountain without encountering any hostiles. They eventually stopped near a very large hole with steam coming out of it.

"Let's rest for a moment before we continue our walk towards the summit." Cesar said before the team uses some rocks as chairs.

He saw Patricia near the edge of the mountain looking for something using her binoculars. Meanwhile Annette, Zhang and Misaki were observing the large hole with steam coming out of it and the three discussed the purpose of the hole, ranging from a weird geyser to some sort of volcano.

The sound of rocks breaking alerted the team and look at the direction of the sound weapons drawn. They saw the SHIV trying to break a large rock with a shovel.

"What did you find their buddy?" Zhang approached the SHIV and knelt beside it.

The SHIV continued trying to break the rock until a fist size chunk fell. Zhang picked up the rock and saw a gem hidden inside.

"Hey boss, the SHIV found something interesting." Zhang tossed the rock at Cesar who caught it easily "Helmet Scanners is picking up some sort of energy reading on it."

"Interesting, I think Dr. Vahlen would like to study this." Cesar said as he inspected the rock. "Tell the SHIV to gather as much as it can." He tossed back the rock at Zhang who stored it in the cart.

The SHIV begins dissecting the rock using the plasma torch and Shovel, it took the SHIV ten minutes to remove the outer part of the rock revealing a large gem inside and radiating a glow around it.

"Woah/Pretty" The general consensus of Alpha team the SHIV continued its action to gather samples of the glowing rock.

"Hey Boss you're gonna want to see this." Patricia called out to Cesar

"What is it Patricia?" Cesar asked, but her response was to give him a spare binocular

"I can see the village and the edge of a sunflower field not far from our position." Patricia said while looking through her binoculars "It must be the village Big Sky saw during the landing." Still looking at her binoculars "Should we investigate that area Boss?"

"Yes, if a village exists then there is probably a lot of stuff we can retrieve. We'll check that sunflower field you're referring to tomorrow." Cesar said "How far is it from our position?"

"Not far from our current position, it will take us at least few hours to reach it if we walk, less than that if we run." Patricia said

"We will take the slow and cautious approach." Cesar said "No need to disturb the natives." Cesar then looked at Annette and Zhang who were watching the SHIV cutting gem like rocks "Annette, how long till the SHIV finishes gathering those rocks?"

"A few minutes before the SHIV is good to go." Annette said but she was interrupted by Misaki

"Boss, I can't help it but something or someone is watching us." Misaki reported

"Stop intruders!" A voice shouted at them then several people appeared and surrounded Alpha Team "You will not continue further deep into the Youkai Mountain."

A total of ten people surrounded Alpha Team and based from what Alpha team

observed the hostiles have a human appearance with wolf ears and tail. The newcomers are all wearing white long-sleeved shirts and large black skirts with red flame-like designs reaching up from the bottom of the skirt, and that it has a white layer below the skirt, and all of them wore red tokin. They were all armed with a large scimitar-like sword and a white round shield with a red maple leaf print on it.

Alpha team has encountered one of the tengu patrols roaming around the mountain. Tengu Patrols are always composed of white wolf tengus and responsible for keeping out intruders. The white wolf tengu have keen eyesight, a good sense of smell, and acute hearing making them an effective security force.

"By the orders of Lord Tenma, all intruders in tengu territory will be removed by force." The leader of the group said "Remove them from the mountain."

The white wolf tengu moved with great speed that it surprised the XCOM squad, as the speed displayed by the tengu surpasses any alien XCOM encounter like the Thin Man, Floaters, and Seekers.

Several minutes had passed and Alpha team had yet to land a single shot, as the Tengus were too fast for the Alpha team. The enemies were just like grasshoppers hopping around using the rocks as platforms and cover.

One of the tengu managed to kick Cesar into a nearby hole but luckily he managed to use the grappling hook in his armor to prevent him from falling to his death.

Patricia is flying on the air with the aid of her jetpack, she tries to provide sniper cover but the enemy was moving too fast for her to scope. The remaining three were hunkered down behind some rocks shooting at the tengu who gracefully evaded the attacks.

That battle is on a stalemate as the XCOM squad couldn't land a single hit on the white wolf tengus as they are too fast, while the tengus could not find an opening they could exploit as the so called intruders were on a defensive position and couldn't be dislodged so easily. The stalemate was broken when Misaki managed to land a lucky shot on one of the tengu in the shoulder with her weapon. She was about to finish the downed enemy when an enemy appeared behind her.

"I got you now" The leader shouted with her sword descending down on Misaki who instinctively use her arm to block the sword. The sword broke into pieces the moment it touched the armor as the force was beyond what the sword could handle, yet it still managed to leave a scratch on the armor. The patrol leader could only stare in surprise at what had happened, before she could even blink, she was knocked down to the ground face first.

She then looks back but sees the barrel of a weapon aimed at her and her expression turned into horror then attempts to use her shield to hopefully stop the bullet. A miracle happened as another tengu rams the weapon forcing it to fire at a different direction drilling a hole in the ground near the Leader's head. While another one retrieved their injured teammate nearby dragging her to the safety of the rocks.

"Are you okay captain?" The leader just nodded at the question "Captain get behind me."

The white wolf tengu uses her shield to block the incoming plasma shots but to her horror the plasma just went right through the shield with no effort. Melting the shield like it was wet tissue paper before impacting on the skin with devastating results.

She couldn't even scream as several shots hit her with the finishing shot hit directly on her head. The leader of the patrol quickly rolled on the ground just to avoid several plasma bolts, then hid behind a rock to catch her breath while carrying the dead body of her savior. She saw one of the intruders launch some sort energy blast headed towards her teammate and she tried to scream to alert her teammate but no words came out of her mouth.

"You're going to wish you'd stayed home!" Annette said before launching Psi- Panic towards one of the white wolf tengu.

The Psi-Panic quickly overwhelmed the mental defenses of the tengu then her face that once proudly shows confidence and courage is replaced with a horrified expression and her body begins to shake uncontrollably.

"Ah, we need to retreat now." White Wolf Tengu (WWT) #4 said "This battle is hopeless."

One of her compatriots with a designation of WWT#3 tried to calm her down but the panic of WWT#4 was so intense that she even started attacking her allies near her just to escape the place. Lashing out wildly swinging her sword in every direction then WWT#3 along with WWT#7 pinned her down behind a large rock.

"Come on, everything will be okay." WWT#3 said but her colleague just kept thrashing wildly while screaming incoherent things.

Before she could say something a round object landed on top of WWT#4, the three look what the object is then horrified expression creep in their faces what landed on their position but they were too late to move out of the way as the alien grenade explode with a following explosion by the Zhang's rocket killing all three white wolf tengus. There was another grenade thrown in that direction just to make sure those three tengus are really dead.

Having lost four of their members, the morale of the tengu patrol dropped hard with them making more mistakes which caused another two of their members killed after getting hit by Cesar's shotgun and Misaki's Particle cannon.

The surviving white wolf tengu regrouped and looked at the intruders that dared to step foot on their territory. The white wolf tengu used the large rocks as cover against the plasma and bullet shots pelting their position. Initially, they thought the intruders were easy to dispatch. They didn't expect the intruders to fight back while it's not uncommon for some youkai to wander around the Youkai Mountain looking for a fight to stave off boredom but the smell of their intruders is that of humans. Based on their experience humans are technically weaker than most youkai with the exception of Reimu and Marisa.

"This was supposed to be a simple patrol." WWT#5 moaned in pain "Where did it all go wrong."

"They're too strong!" WWT#2 said in heavy breaths "What should we do?"

"Retreat, Retreat!" WWT Leader shouted "Everyone retreat back to the village." She picked up the body of two fallen wolf tengu then proceeded to fly to the peak of the mountain.

The other three surviving members also followed their leader, scooped up their fallen members then ran to the safety of their village in the mountain, as they desperately evaded plasma shots being fired upon them, some of them threw smoke bombs to cover their retreat. Alpha team just looks at the retreating forms of the white wolf tengu that attacked them. The white wolf tengu went higher into the mountains carrying their fallen members with them until Alpha team could no longer see them.

"Anyone injured?" Cesar asked

"Nope" The other members of Alpha Team collectively said

"Should we chase them?" Annette asked while examined the broken swords and shield left by their enemy

"No, given their direction they must have retreated to their base of operations at the peak of this mountain." Cesar answered "They probably alerted their pals about us. No sense in engaging them when they have the home field advantage and attacking their headquarters, it would just stir up the hornet's nest."

Cesar looked towards the direction of where the tengu retreated "We will take note of this place for a possible intensive recon in the near future."

"There goes Doctor Vahlen's specimen" Zhang said as their enemies carried the bodies of their fallen, denying XCOM any chance to study it.

The only thing that remained was their weapons. The team headed back down the mountain, with their loot from the recent battle and samples collected. They went straight to the direction of the village that they saw without going back to their campsite to drop off things to save time.

* * *

**Unknown Village**

**Night Time**

Alpha Team observed the village using the nearby hill as a vantage point, luckily the helmets they wore also had built in binoculars with a night vision feature added, so it was not difficult to view the village from a distance and in the middle of the night.

"I don't know much about Japanese architecture or history, but this place has buildings that are surely from Japan's medieval age" Cesar said as he observed the village

"Patricia, what security does this village have?" Cesar continued

"Guards armed with spears and swords while also doing standard three-man patrol route on what seems to be major roads in the village." Patricia said while she listed what she saw on the scope of her weapon "No traps on the walls with only two guards guarding the entrance, the streets are only lit by lamps hanging outside the houses." She shifted her weapon "I counted twenty guards in total but there could be more."

"Unarmed personnel can be seen but are seemingly in a hurry to get inside their houses." Patricia commented "It's like they fear something that lurks in the night."

"They seem to be human, should we greet them at the gate?" Annette asked

"Negative, we are not entirely sure if they are really a human or a youkai masquerading as a human to lure clueless people from the outside." Cesar said "Assuming if they are human along with the residents of this village, we don't know where their loyalty lies, for all we know the moment they know we're human or outsiders they will sell us out to the youkai or report us to their youkai overlord(s)."

"Looks are really deceiving in this place" Zhang said "If they really are human," Zhang continued "Why would there be a human village in this kind of place?"

"Well the only way to find answers for our questions is to infiltrate the village and look for a place that holds valuable Intel." Misaki said "Which would count me out since my MEC suit will stick out and it was not built for stealth purposes."

"Annette and Patricia will infiltrate the village since both of them got the Mimic Skin gene mod." Cesar said and looked at the two mentioned persons "In the cover of nightfall, they can easily blend in the surroundings and guards won't easily notice them"

"I know I got that genetic enhancement that makes me blend in with cover making me like a chameleon." Annette said "But I know nothing of stealth ops, I was more a point and shoot person."

"Don't worry, just follow Patricia lead, as she has experience in Covert Ops." Cesar said

"I didn't know you were a covert agent on spoiling the EXALT operations." Annette said and looked at Patricia in disbelief "I've only known Vandal prior to being transferred to this team."

"Just like what Zhang said, looks can be deceiving." Patricia said as she checked on her plasma pistol since her sniper would be useless in a close range engagement

"Trust me kid, she is deadly on Close Quarter Combat (CQC) as she is deadly with that sniper on long range engagement." Zhang said while giving a small laugh "You could see the hunted faces of the EXALT soldiers who made the wrong choice when they fought her at CQC."

"I am surprised that she's a sniper class and not that of an assault class when she got promoted." Cesar piped in the conversation "Jokes aside, any idea on which building looks important?"

"If this is a self sustaining village then there must be a school or library in the area." Misaki said "It always contains books about the place, but with this place's architectural design it is almost impossible to find the right building. If you can find a town hall, it can provide us with business transactions of this village. Also the houses of their influential people here can be a possible source of Intel."

**Timeskip**

Climbing past the walls were easy because of the Genetic Modification given to them. The two landed on the other side with a soft thud on the ground to avoid alerting guards or possible residents nearby. Half-an-hour has passed but the two members of the alpha team have yet to make any significant progress on their Intel recon.

They've tried Eavesdropping on several people but most of them only had useless information and they also tried scouting the buildings, however most of them are just houses and stores.

"This is getting us nowhere" Annette grumbled "How do we know if we got the right building we need, this might take us forever."

"Quiet" Patricia said in a whispering tone while signaling Annette "Footsteps… three pairs judging by the sound. Get to cover, hurry"

The two hid behind a corner and saw three men with katana strap to their waist walking past them while eavesdropping on the conversation. Luckily the Helmet of Alpha-Team has a built in audio and visual translator so they were able to hear the words clearly in English.

"Night Patrol is boring, it makes me sleepy everyday" Guard#1 said while yawning

"Don't forget dangerous" Guard#2 added "Night time is when most youkai come out of their hiding places and cause havoc. Luckily we got Keine-sensei who can go toe to toe with those stronger youkai."

"I heard a rumor that she headbutted an Oni once." Guard#3 said "The headbutt was so strong, it put that Oni to sleep."

"You believe that rumor?" Guard#1 asked "that's just a drunkard's tale, always spitting nonsense when drunk."

"By the way, have you noticed that Keine-sensei frequently visits Akyuu-sama." Guard#2 said

"Well Keine-sensei is a teacher and she teaches history at the school" Guard#3 reasoned "That explains why she visits the place, after all Akyuu-sama's occupation is compiling information about various youkai and youkai hunters living in

Gensokyo as well as to compile historical articles." The two other guards looked at him like he said something stupid

"What? that's what the guards at her mansion said, and what my family told me when I was young." The Three men continued talking as they passed by the two members of Alpha Team without any of the guards noticing

"At least we know where we should go" Annette joked but Patricia ignored it to focus on the matter at hand

"If you were an important and influential person in this village where should you build your house?" Patricia asked before jumping on the roof of a nearby house followed by Annette "Where do you think Annette?"

"I am pretty sure that I would build a mansion somewhere near the center of the village" Annette reasoned "As it would be the safest place to be, it would also be near the important buildings like the market."

"Good deduction, There's a large mansion to the north of our position" Patricia said while pointing at the direction. Several minutes passed and they had arrived at their destination

"Well this is some expensive looking home. I wouldn't be surprised if it was worth a fortune to get it built." Patricia added as she observed the house

The mansion in question is your typical Japanese style mansion that you can find in the history books.

Once again climbing past the walls was easy. The guards guarding the entrance and patrolling the mansion didn't notice two blurry figures blending in the background as they walk past the guards. One guard noticed the sound of a door closing, shrugged it off as it was probably just his imagination and continued patrolling.

Once inside the mansion, navigating around was harder than expected as the wooden floor would creak under the weight of the armor, luckily with whatever kind of wood used in the construction of the mansion was able to hold their weight. They moved slowly to avoid alerting everyone inside the house.

An hour of roaming around later, they stumbled upon what seems to be a workplace as they saw scrolls organized neatly on a nearby shelf and several scrolls and books scattered on a table, the room was dark with the only source of light was the moon.

The two could see clearly in the dark thanks to the built-in night vision in their helmets which was further improved by alien technology.

"Jackpot" Patricia whispered and motioned to Annette who was guarding the door to come inside.

After making sure the place isn't rigged with any anti-theft and anti-intruder traps. The two began rummaging around looking for any possible valuable Intel they can acquire, checking every possible nook and cranny that might hide important documents.

"I feel like a thief doing this" Annette whispered but with a resentful tone at what she was doing "Is this what covert agents do all the time?"

"Yeah, I won't deny it" Patricia answered "You will feel guilty for the first time but you'll get used to it and don't forget the Intel we gather here will save lives in the future."

"So, Miss Expert what should we take with us?"Annette asked while looking at the books, scrolls, papers and letters scattered on the table "I'm pretty sure we can't bring EVERYTHING with us."

"Take the stuff that's mostly about the history of this place, Profiles for important people and business transactions if they have it." Patricia said, proceeding to gather some books and scrolls.

Annette began doing the same thing but slower as she has to check the scrolls and books individually, since some of them don't have labels. While she can't read Japanese Handwriting, the helmet provides translations which made it easier to identify important documents. They spend half an hour going through and collected 8 books and 15 Scrolls mostly encyclopedias, biographies and guides.

"We got quite the haul" Annette said looking at the gathered pile of books and scrolls "So how do we carry them out of here?"

"Well, unless one of us has a magical pocket that could store things, we're gonna do it the old fashioned way" Patricia said looking around the room and found a leather sack in a corner "We can put them in here and they'll fit."

"How are we even supposed to smuggle it out?" Annette asked "Would the Mimic Skin even work on it? because I don't want people getting spooked by a floating leather bag and start shouting about and alerting the entire village."

"It will work, unless they're specifically looking for us" Patricia reasoned "Help me fix the mess we made."

"Why clean it? It's not THAT messy, I'm sure that we didn't disturb everything TOO much for someone to notice something out of place" Annette said and was confused by the request "In the movies, aren't people supposed to start running once they stole or got what they needed?"

"It's only true if you've been discovered or don't have enough time to cover your tracks." Patricia said "We need to buy as much time as we can, until we can get outta here. Depending on how good the owner's memory is, it'll be the deciding factor on how long it will take them to notice something is amiss and begin the investigation."

Without protest, the two began covering their tracks and fixing everything that seemed out of place that would make someone notice their presence. They used the empty books and scrolls stored in a woven basket to replace the books and scrolls they stole.

Luckily they didn't have to worry about those empty baskets, since they were in the corner of the room and would not one would notice they were empty, unless if someone decided to check and look inside the baskets, the books and scrolls also had a unified physical appearance giving the illusion that the everything's still in their proper place.

They spent 45 minutes covering their tracks before leaving the mansion via the same way they came but, halfway to their destination they paused as they could see a person standing across the road and seemed to be looking for something.

The person had brown eyes and long silver hair with blue highlights wearing a dark blue dress with short sleeves and a red ribbon tied to the bottom of the collar.

"That's one funny looking hat." Annette whispered while also commenting to the hat which looks like some kind of building with a red ribbon on top and glyphs inscribe along its sides.

Annette and Patricia are leaning against a wall for the Mimic skin to take effect, making them virtually invisible to the naked eye. The person looks at the direction where Annette and Patricia were hiding, the person then slowly walked towards them, like she noticed something was amiss. This makes the two XCOM soldiers tense with Annette's arm slowly going for her Pistol and Patricia slowly aiming the Arc thrower to the approaching person who was slowly reaching out her hand where Annette stood. The two couldn't move from the spot since it would break the concealment of the Mimic Skin and they couldn't shoot their weapons since it would wake up everyone in the area, their only solution was to use CQC to disable or shock that person with the Arc Thrower.

Right when the person was about to touch Annette a man's voice yelled:

"Keine-sensei, there is an emergency in the northern gate." A Village Guard said while running towards the person who retracted her hand and looked at the Guard with a serious face "A youkai is attacking the Gate and attempting to get in! The Sentries are doing their best to hold the gate."

"I see." Keine said while still looking at where the two XCOM members were hiding. "Lead the way" The guard quickly ran towards the northern gate while Keine gave one last look on the spot giving her the chills.

"I swear there's something weird on THAT spot, but it can wait, the village is under attack." Keine's form changed, her eyes turned brown to red, green highlights appeared on her long silver hair, two horns grew from her head with the left horn being decorated with a red ribbon, and her dress changed color from dark blue to green with white short sleeves with the red ribbon still attached to the bottom of the collar.

She then began following the Guard to the direction of the disturbance in the village.

"Did you see that?" Annette said with surprised tone "It's like one of those anime transformations."

"It seems we made the right move, not to make first contact with this village." Patricia said "Judging by the tone of that guard, it seems that person's name was Keine, she has considerable influence in this village or has a high position in the village hierarchy."

"So this means everyone in this village could be considered a possible enemy?" Annette asked

"They are conspiring with the enemy just like EXALT." Patricia answered and looked at the direction where Keine ran "Unless, the residents here have no choice but to obey the orders of their Youkai Overlord(s)."

"You're telling me there may be a chance that some residents are holding anti-youkai sentiments but can't say it due to fear of what the youkai will do to them." Annette said

"Yes, if this is true then we can provide them help, in the near future." Patricia said "However, it all depends on the decision by the Commander regarding this village."

It took the two members of Alpha Team ten minutes before they regrouped with the squad back at the hill completely unaware that a person was observing them from afar.

The person is standing on top of a house. The person has brown eyes and light-brown long hair. She wears a checkered scarf and large robe and a leaf-shaped hair clip. However the most noticeable feature is that the person has tanuki ears and tail.

"Hoo, the board has grown big as new players step in." The person said after tailing the two after she saw them exited the house of Akyuu "This will be an interesting time for the citizens of Gensokyo."

* * *

**Next Morning**

**XCOM Campsite**

"Okay team, I got good news and bad news." Cesar addressed the group "The good news is that Big Sky managed to fix the Sky Ranger and we can leave this place anytime." Some of the members is giving Big Sky a thumbs up "Settle down, the bad news however, is that we have yet to find a specimen for Dr. Vahlen."

"So we're going back out there to find one." Cesar continued

"You know what to do Big Sky, We'll call you if we need extraction." Cesar said to the pilot of the Sky Ranger "You sure you don't need help with the boxes?"

"Nah, Just go find that specimen for Vahlen." Big Sky said "I can finish loading all the boxes before you guys find a specimen."

After eating their breakfast, they set out towards the place that they haven't checked and it was the large sunflower field. Hopefully they'll find a specimen for Dr. Vahlen.

* * *

**Garden of the Sun**

A person walks across an endless sea of sunflowers under the sun and waving as the wind passes by. The person has red eyes and green hair, in addition wearing a red plaid skirt and a waist coat of the same color and pattern over a plain white shirt with a yellow ribbon tied around the collar, also carrying a parasol. This person is known in Gensokyo as Yuuka Kazami and holds the title of Flower Master of the Four Seasons. Her main place of activity is the Garden of the Sun, a field completely covered in sunflowers.

She acts as a caretaker for flowers regardless of seasons and sometimes roams Gensokyo visiting flowers that only bloom on a specific season.

"Another sunny day" Yuuka said as she playfully twirled her parasol. Yuuka passes by the endless rows of sunflowers before stopping in front of a young sunflower.

"You don't need to be jealous of others, I'm sure you will grow as beautiful as they are." Yuuka said to the flower as she gently caressed it lovingly.

Most people who are familiar with Yuuka are confused on how she is able to talk with flowers. They tried asking Yuuka to explain how it works but what they get is just a riddle for an answer. Some say Yuuka's lost her mind, while others say she is just lying about being able to talk to flowers. However, everyone unanimously agreed that no one should destroy or damage any flowers while Yuuka is around if you don't want to suffer her wrath.

She was about to continue her walk when she heard large explosions and cries of sunflowers. Thinking it was just fairies messing with her flowers again, she set towards the direction of the explosion while thinking of the punishments she will inflict to those that dare to hurt her beloved flowers. It took her a few minutes to arrive at her destination, she then saw five armored individuals wielding something she isn't familiar to her but she knows it's a weapon. Four of these individuals are heavily armored from head to toe while the last one seems to be a robot of some kind, like what those Kappas brag about at The Youkai Mountain. The unknown individuals were loading up an unconscious youkai on a cart while also making sure it wouldn't escape the moment it woke up.

While she is not someone who usually butts in someone else's business, the sunflowers that were shredded and burned beside them made her blood boil. She decided to confront them and make them pay for desecrating her garden.

The scent and aura of these armored individuals were that of humans. Yuuka was sure that no one from the human village wore that amount or that KIND of armor, which means these were **OUTSIDERS**. Outsiders are usually just humans that stumble into Gensokyo either by accident or by Yukari's shenanigans. She would hear stories about the outside world from Yukari and the Kappa, during the occasional victory party at the Hakurei shrine. While she didn't care much of whatever happens in the outside world, she was much more interested in the modern methods and techniques in flower gardening.

Yuuka then approached the small group of outsiders.

"Greetings, I never expected visitors in this part of Gensokyo." Yuuka announced her presence "Especially, at this time of day."

The five armored persons greeted her back by pointing their weapons and evidently startled by her sudden appearance. She just gave them a small smirk of their show of force.

"Who are you?" One of them said "You know, it is rude to ask a lady her name when you are merely a guest in her home." Yuuka said with a teasing smile

"You know they also say, Ladies First." That same person replied back

"Oh my, we got a gentleman here, I'm quite touched by the courtesy." Yuuka said while pretending to be touched by the courtesy complete with gestures "I was afraid that the humans devolved back to barbaric practices as time went on, to think there are still courteous people simply touched my heart."

"You may call me Yuuka Kazami." Yuuka introduced

"Just call me Cesar" Cesar introduced back "As for them, they are my squadmates" gesturing to the members of the squad "You own this place?" Wary of this newcomer with his instincts telling him that this woman is a lot more than meets the eye.

"You can say I'm the caretaker for these flowers." Yuuka said caressing the a sunflower nearby

"Usually the Garden of the Sun is a place where no human would even dare set foot on, for there are hidden dangers in it's beautiful appearance." Yuuka looks at the group with a sour expression "But to my surprise, I see a group of humans desecrating my beautiful garden with their filthy hands."

"Miss Kazami, I'm sure we can talk this out, like civilized people." Cesar said "We were completely unaware that this place is very sacred to you, if we'd known that from the beginning, we could have minimized the damage."

"You can repay the damages with your dead bodies as fertilizer for my sunflowers." Yuuka said, before suddenly disappearing almost instantly.

Yuuka caught them off guard, with the speed she displayed to close the gap between them. They were forced to engage her on CQC as they couldn't risk shooting their teammates. Yuuka kicked Cesar sending him flying towards his two teammates, then ducks to evade a Kinetic Strike from Misaki, she then uses her parasol to strangle Annette while using her as a human shield but this did not last long as a Stun Grenade temporarily disorients her.

Yuuka gets tackled to the ground by Cesar who started to punch her face. Cesar's first punch never lands as Yuuka transforms into a ball of light, evading the punch. As Yuuka reappears several meters away from the XCOM squad, she looks directly at them and says:

"How barbaric! To tackle a lady to the ground" Yuuka said shouting at them "Behold, the consequence of your actions."

Yuuka flies several meters above the ground then launches a barrage of flower shaped Danmaku towards the XCOM squad. The squad drops to the ground just to avoid the attack, whereas in Misaki's case she uses her arm as a shield to block the incoming shots.

_"Interesting, the armor of that robot seems to be tougher than ordinary steel." Yuuka's thoughts as she observed Misaki's MEC being pelted by hundreds of Danmaku yet only scratching the armor._

"Hmmm, maybe I should use a spell card, just to see if it can handle it." Yuuka giggled a little "Or, I should play with them a little more before using my spell cards."

In the corner of her eye, she sees one of them with his guard down, without any effort Yuuka raises her parasol and the tip begins to glow.

"Goodbye Human!" Yuuka said firing a giant laser beam, Zhang saw the giant laser beam coming right at him and on instinct tried to dodge it but, his reaction was slow and took the full blast of the beam. When the laser beam dissipated Zhang is in a small crater on the ground with his armor smoking from the intense heat.

"Old Man!" Yuuka heard one of them shouting as they ran towards the downed human

"Your armor impresses me human, to think it could survive my attack." Yuuka complimenting him as she sees the human was unharmed "Or maybe I just didn't use enough power, let's increase the output shall we?"

Yuuka fired another laser but this time it was larger and much more powerful than the previous one. However, before it could even reach the two XCOM soldiers the laser suddenly curved to the right destroying every sunflower that was in its path. Yuuka was in shock at how her laser just curved, Yuuka then looked closer and noticed a purple field surrounding the two. The field was faint and you needed to focus to see it.

"That's a very nice shield you got there." Yuuka said as she was already ready to unleash another one of her more powerful attacks "Let see if it can handle this, **Fantasy[The Beauties of Nature]."**

Yuuka releases a hundred of danmaku all around her which formed a pattern of a flower. Alpha team would be amazed by the beauty of the patterns if not for the fact that the attack is aimed right at them with the intent to injure them and at worst kill them.

However, just like with the laser the danmaku seems to disappear as it entered the purple field, while a few danmaku were able to get into the field on entry, a mysterious force curves them back out of the field.

The field that Annette used to protect them from Yuuka's attack is one of the abilities that a Psionic Soldier can learn, it is called the Telekinetic Field, an immobile field that distorts and deflects incoming projectile attacks. The field's duration depends on the user's ability to sustain it. The psionic soldier needs a few seconds to channel the psionic energy to form the field.

However, prolonged and sustained usage can lead to psi-exhaustion, a condition where a psionic soldier overuses his/her psionic abilities and results to the increases chance of being susceptible to psionic-based attacks, headaches, fatigue, etc.

"Interesting" Yuuka said after seeing her attack being easily deflected "So it can also deflect a spell card attack." As she saw the field slowly disappearing, her musing was cut short as a particle beam almost hit her head, if she hadn't reacted fast enough the particle beam could've taken her head off.

She was about to retaliate by firing another laser when her vision started to blur and started seeing things, like she is losing a grasp of reality along with a headache that feels like someone smashed a massive rock on her head.

Unbeknownst to Yuuka she let her guard down, specifically her mental defenses as she was caught off guard by Annette's sudden Mindfray, which is a psionic attack that causes the target to temporarily lose grip of reality, it inflicts reductions to the target's aim, will, mobility and causes the target to hallucinate.

She uses her parasol to hopefully deflect and block the incoming attacks but some of them managed to get through as she was still suffering from the effects of the Mind Fray. The plasma hit her in the left shoulder, right hip, and right thigh burning through the clothing with ease.

 _"It hurts!" Yuuka thought as she fights the burning sensation brought by the plasma_ _rounds "If I wasn't a youkai I would be dead against these physical attacks. It seems_ _they don't know that youkai are more vulnerable to faith-based attacks than physical_ _attacks."_

"Shred her Zhang!" Cesar shouted

Yuuka saw the blurry image of a person named Zhang who fired a green orb approaching her at a fast pace. Despite her blurred vision she managed to use her parasol to block it but her instinct warned her that the orb was a lot more dangerous than it looked, she then taped into her magic to emit a small energy field around her body. The moment the orb touched the parasol a violent explosion of Plasma covered the entire impact zone and turned everything within its explosion radius into dust except for Yuuka.

The explosion tore small holes on her parasol and her energy field was starting to fall apart. She tried to pump more magical energy to reinforce her parasol, but it was too late for her energy field as it broke apart, taking most of the brunt of the explosion leaving Yuuka with several small cuts around her body.

"That surprised me." Yuuka thought as she tried to clear the dust off her face "It lacks the heat and force that explosions all share but makes up with penetrating damage." Yuuka commenting on the Shredder Rocket

She hears the sound of weapons firing and on instinct she uses her magic to make the nearby sunflowers grow in size then twist it to form several protective layers around her. The sound of plasma hitting the shield gives her breathing room for a moment before the shield fails against the intense firepower.

"It seems that they have other tricks up their sleeves." Yuuka thought as the dust started to clear away "Whatever mind trick they used it's starting to wear off, but the headache is still there."

She quickly uses her parasol to block a particle beam after the sunflower shield burns away. The beam managed to make a hole in the parasol that almost hit her head if she didn't tilt it to the side. She glares at the one who shot the hole in her parasol. Yuuka started to abuse her ability to turn into a ball of light and short range teleportation to avoid the next set of attacks that she couldn't block or dodge.

She began to engage them at CQC with Annette being the first one to take a hard hit from Yuuka's parasol, as she was sent flying towards a group of sunflowers. She dodged Zhang's attempt to pummel his weapon on her face before she kneed him in the stomach then threw him towards Misaki who caught Zhang. She then teleported behind Patricia who was trying to snipe her but before Yuuka could smack her on the back of her head, Patrica turned on the jetpack that's on the back of her armor giving Yuuka a wave of deadly heat on her stomach.

Yuuka staggered backwards before feeling a tap on her shoulder. She looks over her shoulder and sees the barrel of Cesar's weapon aimed right at her face. Yuuka, in one quick motion, kicks the gun upwards and disarms Cesar. She then retaliated by kicking him in the stomach, but before her kick could land, Cesar was able to pull out the Arc thrower and shocks Yuuka first. The kick still lands and Cesar is sent flying but Patricia manages to catch him. Yuuka on the other hand is on the ground twitching violently from the Arc Thrower shot, with the electric current visibly flowing around her body.

"Ah! That was a very strong kick." Cesar said

"Your gun boss" Zhang said holding it with one hand

"At least we got another specimen for Dr. Vahlen" Patricia said while looking at the unconscious form of Yuuka.

"Although I have to admit, she is one tough cookie." Cesar says

Annette walks towards the body with a pair of specialized handcuffs, for a moment she looks at Yuuka, before crouching down to restrain her. Then, all of sudden a hand grabs her by the throat and starts lifting her off the ground.

"I have to admit that lightning attack seemed different to other lightning based attacks I have experienced." Yuuka said while slowly crushing Annette's throat "It felt like my nerves were on fire!"

Yuuka uses her parasol to block the incoming shots, but she failed to notice a plasma shot coming from a different direction which directly hit her hand that was choking Annette.

"AH!" Yuuka screams in pain as she lets go of Annette and holds her injured hand then gives an angry glare towards the direction of the shot.

A shadow hovered above her, she looks up and sees a giant robot already beside her, without her realizing its presence. Before Yuuka could even react she was hit in the cheek with Kinetic Strike Module sending her flying towards the sunflower field.

_"That punch managed to hurt me, I could feel my skull almost cracking from it." Yuuka said to herself while trying to fight back the headache, regaining her bearings, and with her body starting to protest in pain "That was lucky, I managed to use my magic to create a shield to take the brunt of the attack."_

"Did we get her?" Yuuka heard one of them say

_"They think lowly of me..." Yuuka thought as her anger began to rise "I will teach them fear, I seem to have underestimated them and paid the price."_

Yuuka slowly gets up from her position and dusts off dirt from her skirt and approaches the XCOM Squad.

"Don't think that a mere punch like that would knock me out so easily." Yuuka said with a visible severe bruise on her face while her hair is slightly disheveled. "For a human you have guts."

"I was willing to give you a swift and painless death, but if you'd rather die fighting than beg for your lives, then I will give you exactly what you want." Yuuka says with an excited expression on her face "Congratulations, you have PIQUED my interest."

She channels a large amount of magical energy to heal some of the injuries inflicted on her. Her opponents start firing at her and she sees this and with a flick of her hand several sunflowers grow massively in size and form protective layers around her blocking every shot, but the high temperature of the plasma melts through the sunflower shield at a rapid rate and the moment the plasma managed to breach the sunflower shield the shooting stops due to one reason... LAUGHTER, it is heard echoing around the area.

A huge number of fairies began to converge on their location, being drawn towards the place like a moth to a flame. The fairies started to surround Alpha team in all directions while giggling to themselves.

"Hope you're ready for round two?" Yuuka said with a predator-like grin, which will forever be engraved into the minds of the Alpha team.

* * *

**Somewhere in the Forest Magic**

**Morning**

Daiyousei is looking for a good spot to hide, after her ice fairy friend named Cirno declared to play Hide and Seek, a game which is also being participated by the majority of the fairies that reside within Misty Lake. She has been flying around the area looking for a spot to hide in, clearly desperate to find one, as she knows that Cirno would count only from one to three then skip straight to ten since Cirno is not good at counting or anything that relies mostly on numbers.

This was also the fifth Hide and Seek they were able to play within the span of two weeks, she needed a new spot to hide in since Cirno already found out where most of her hiding spots are, with Reimu getting angry at them for almost destroying her Shrine the last time they played.

The reason for that small incident was because the game they play isn't just simple Hide and Seek, but a modified one, where when the Seeker finds the players they will begin a Spell Card Battle.

This is where Cirno excels the most compared to the majority of the Fairy Population in Gensokyo. The only way for the hiding players to win is to either defeat the Seeker or the Seeker fails to find them before night time.

"Where should I hide?" Daiyousei asked herself as she looked around for a spot

"Maybe I could hide in the human village?" Daiyousei asked herself "No, Keine-sensei would scold and lecture me, and I don't think Reimu would appreciate it if I hide at her Shrine again"

"Hey, Daiyousei-chan, what are you doing?" An unknown voice said to Daiyousei as she looked up and saw a blonde haired girl approaching her fast.

"Good to see you again Rumia, I am playing Hide and Seek with Cirno."Daiyousei replied

"Have you seen anything I could eat?" Rumia asked with a smile on her face

"No, have you tried asking Mystia for food?" Daiyousei asked "Maybe she could give you some"

"Eh, but I already ate there last night, after some humans wouldn't let me eat them." Rumia said "So what are you doing in this part of Gensokyo?"

"I am looking for a place to hide" Daiyousei said as her sweat dripped from her face

"Have you tried hiding in the Bamboo forest?"Rumia asked

"I don't want to get lost again, I got lost there for three days straight" Daiyousei answered "I was only able to get out of that forest thanks to a friend of Keine-sensei guiding me"

"What about the Sunflower Field?"

"I don't want to face that scary youkai that lives there" Daiyousei said shivering in fear, remembering that event where Cirno accidentally broke one of the sunflowers and got punished by that scary youkai who lives in that place.

Before Rumia could ask again they both hear Cirno yelling her signature Spell Card and cries of other Fairies nearby. Daiyousei quickly said goodbye to Rumia and flew as fast as she could.

After flying for several minutes with no sense of direction, Daiyousei stops to catch her breath, even if she could no longer hear the sounds of the Spell Card Match, that doesn't mean she is safe, since the time is still right before lunch time, that means she still needs to hide for a few hours before the game ends, the worst case scenario she will be that she has to face her friend Cirno in a Spell card match, where she surely lose.

While these Spell Card battles are technically non-lethal and the fairies are immortal, that doesn't mean it won't hurt when you get hit.

She saw a large grayish object with wings surrounded by fallen trees, her curiosity got better of her despite her instincts telling not to. She approaches the object with interest touching the body, feeling the metallic texture before proceeding inside through a large open section of the large object while looking around like a child who's curious about the world around her. She sat on the seats and found it quite comfortable then noticed a stack of boxes, she looked inside one of the boxes and found several sandwich packs inside, she picked one up and sampled it, a smile formed on her face as it was the best sandwich she has ever tasted in her life.

She proceeded to pick up several sandwiches and had to use both her arms to carry them, willing to share them with her friend Cirno. As she began to walk towards the exit she saw the large door slowly closing, without hesitation she dropped all the sandwiches on the floor however, she was too late as the door closed, she tried banging on it but it never opened. She tried to find an open hole where she could escape, she tried to pry the door open with even with all her strength and shot several danmaku at it, but it wouldn't budge or even dent, after a few minutes of trying she gave up and sat on one of the nearby stack boxes as fear started to grip her mind. She is alone inside the object with her only source of light is a red bulb, she recognizes it as something similar to what the Kappa in the Youkai Mountain usually use to illuminate a room.

Tears started to build up on her eyes until she could no longer hold it in and let it all out.

She's afraid of being all alone inside the object and begins regretting her decision of letting her curiosity get the better of her. Fear gripped her mind as she remembered the story of what happened to her fellow fairies that were successfully captured by Humans from the Human Village. They would usually vent their anger on them. Thinking of that story did not remove her worries and fear, instead it did the opposite.

"Is this a new method humans use to lure fairies?" Daiyousei said to herself.

Soon she hears the sound of a large THUD outside of the object along with shouting outside. The first thing that came to her mind was that Cirno had come to rescue her but then shook her head as it was impossible for her friend Cirno to immediately set up a rescue. Her friend Cirno, while she cares for her friends, is not one to think of a plan and will usually charge headfirst, plus she knows that other people wouldn't even bother with rescuing a fairy.

The doors slowly began to open, a newly found hope emerged on her face as she could escape her captivity, she readies herself to sprint the moment the door was fully opened. Once the door fully opened she started sprinting, but she suddenly stopped halfway as she saw something in front of her that was so terrifying that it made her freeze on the spot. She didn't stop because she was behind two armored humans guarding the door who had their backs turned and not facing her... no it was the person in front of those two armored humans that terrified her to the core.

"S-scary Y-youkai" Daiyousei said in a fearful tone, her heartbeat quickened, her breathing became faster and her entire body tensed up from what she saw with her very eyes.

The scary youkai in question was no other than Yuuka Kazami, who was releasing a terrifying aura so strong that Daiyousei felt like she was being choked by the sheer pressure alone, with the sadistic smile Yuuka had on her face that only promised nothing but pain. Whether the smile was directed at her or to the two people in front of her it did not matter, as her mind went on full overdrive on what her next course action would be.

What seemed to be hours of thinking, Daiyousei did the most logical and the most reasonable thing to do in that kind of situation… hide.

* * *

**Prior to Sky Ranger Arrival**

Alpha Team was not having a good day, the enemy they face is one tough nut to crack. They used up so much ammo, it could've flattened a Sectopod in seconds, yet Yuuka's still standing and ready to tango.

The first problem they faced, was the large number of these fairies that appeared out of nowhere, raining down colored balls of light right on them. In spite of the fact that their armor is capable of protecting them, with minimal damage to the armor itself, they did not want to know how many colored balls of light it can take before giving in.

Second, they didn't want to underestimate the fairies considering they have them outnumbered 10 to 1, while they're much easier to eliminate than a Sectoid, Sectiods still manage to injure or even kill the many rookies and veterans of XCOM just because they underestimated them.

There's a saying that should be remembered by the soldiers in XCOM **"Just because your enemy is weaker than you, doesn't mean it can't kill you with a lucky shot."**

However, the problem that tops the two other problems is the green haired lady who's flying above them spamming lasers at their position. She deliberately misses her shots to the point they can still dodge. It is clear that she is toying with them for now but for how long? until she gets bored and decides to finish them off? It all depends on how far they could entertain her.

To make matters worse, the area they were fighting in had no HARD cover, just sunflowers.

They tried to retreat back to the nearby woods for more cover, but a single giant sunflower stalk blocked their path, as they attempted to jump over it, another giant sunflower stalk would grow and block them and would even try to crush them.

They thought of drilling a hole right through the giant stalk with their plasma weapons or explosives but scrapped the whole idea. They considered that the stalk would just regenerate much faster than they could damage it or even if they did managed to make a hole to the other side, another giant stalk would just cover it, and so would just be a waste of ammunition.

Additionally, Annette was mentally exhausted with the constant usage of her psionic powers, specifically the telekinetic field which could've helped them a lot in their current situation.

"Patricia, I've got a plan but it might be suicide." Cesar said, to Patricia on the radio

"Our missions are usually suicide, what's new?" Patricia said jokingly to lighten up the mood "What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to distract Miss, I Like to Spam Lasers." Cesar said, gesturing to Yuuka before dodging another laser that almost hit his head "I need you to stall her, keep her busy, until we can fully eliminate these fairies. The moment fairies start routing, we'll swoop in to assist you"

"This is the part where I ask, why me?" Patricia asked as sniper shots could be heard in the background.

"You're the only one in the squad with the Archangel armor, which means you can fly up there and lure her away from us." Cesar told Patricia

"Annette couldn't help as she is still recovering from mental exhaustion after using psi-attacks too much, although she can still use a gun, Zhang is thinning down the fairies' numbers, Misaki is acting as a shield for Annette, as her MEC suit is capable of handling against the fairies' attacks. Meanwhile I'm acting as bait for the fairies,so Zhang can mow them down, which leaves you with that task."

"Guess I can't say no to that, but if I die to this plan of yours, I'll come back to haunt you." Patricia said "Just, don't take too long, this'll feel like that one mission where we first encountered the Berserker and Muton Elites."

"If you live, drinks are on me!." Cesar said "I'm gonna keep bothering Central until the commander gives you a shiny new medal."

Patricia flew using the jetpack on her armor, she aimed for Yuuka's head then fired a sniper shot, Yuuka dodged the shot before looking right at Patricia taunting her.

Yuuka who seems to be getting bored firing lasers at Alpha team accepts the challenge and fly towards Patricia while dodging plasma shots while returning fire in flower shape Danmaku

 **"Alpha-1, do you read me?"** Big Sky said in the radio

 **"I read you loud and clear Big Sky."** Cesar says to Big Sky **"ETA on the EVAC?"**

 **"ETA is 10 minutes Alpha-1."** Big Sky replied **"Something clogging the engine, I'll try to remove it as best I can without damaging the engine, try to hold your ground."**

"Alpha-Team, Sky Ranger is 10 minutes away" Cesar addressed the team "Hold your ground."

With renewed vigor, Alpha team returned fire at the large group of fairies surrounding their location, killing some of the incoming mob, evident by the dissolving light particles. Without Yuuka firing lasers on their position, they were relieved of the constant pressure on them, Alpha team began their counter-offensive by systematically eliminating every fairy within their engagement range.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battle is the other member of Alpha team. Patricia is engaging Yuuka, both are too focused with each other, however the battle is favoring Yuuka due to several factors, her strength and experience. The engagement lasted for two minutes before the two fighters disengaged, with the two creating a gap of several meters between each other.

"I'm quite surprised, for a Human to last THIS long against me" Yuuka compliments Patricia

"I can do this all day" Patricia says with her breathing deeply and noticeable dents on her armor.

"Let's see if you can live up to those words" Yuuka said with a playful smile on her face, she then fired a flower pattern Danmaku right at Patricia. Patricia dodged them with slight difficulty as she wasn't used to this kind of battle.

"Now I know what dogfighting feels like" Patricia said as she dodged the colored balls of light coming at her while firing her plasma pistol, despite her accurate shots, she only managed to hit graze shots against her opponent, who in turn was not bothered by it. Patricia thought on how she'll be able to stall and give her squad enough time to finish off the army of fairies.

As Patricia kept dodging the Danmaku, she was unaware of a different ball of light passing by. Patricia's opponent suddenly vanished, this was very alarming to Patricia and made her look around for a second, only to hear a voice behind her.

"Oh my, if you don't focus, or you'll be in a world of pain." Yuuka said with a casual tone on her voice. " **Flower Sign [Blossoming of Gensokyo] "**

Patricia was pelted by so many Danmaku from behind that her jetpack was destroyed and sent her crashing to the ground. Before her mind could register what had happened, Patricia's instincts warn her of incoming danger and she quickly rolls to the side before Yuuka could plant the tip of her Parasol on where her neck should be, she then quickly gets up and puts up a fighting stance.

"Oh, you can STILL STAND after taking that hit?" Yuuka said with a smile while removing the parasol buried in the ground "This simply shows me that armor you humans are wearing isn't simply just for show, and this also shows me that it was made from something very strong." Yuuka just looks at her opponent "Let's test its limits shall we?"

"Among her kind, this human is very interesting, despite taking the full brunt of my Spell Card attack, she still managed to dodge and get up." Yuuka thought "Should I use more Danmaku or Spell Cards?"

"Hmmm, it's been a long time since I've had a fight that didn't involve a Spell Card." Yuuka said to herself "Also they are outsiders, which means Spell Card rules doesn't give them safe insurance in Gensokyo, brute force it is"

The gap between the two fighters was only several meters. Patricia readied her fighting stance while Yuuka just stood there relaxed and just stared back at her with a smile on her face, before dashing towards Patricia, moving faster than the naked eye, cracking the ground where she stood. Patricia took a few steps back to avoid the swing, but Yuuka wouldn't let her rest as she continued her assault, forcing Patricia to defend herself against the never ending onslaught.

_"Her swings are powerful, I don't want to know how it'll feel if I get hit." Patricia thought "Although her speed is falling behind, whether it was from the damage we inflicted on her or this is her actual speed, then I should be able to stall her long enough."_

Patricia dodges the incoming swings and strikes waiting for an opening she could exploit, as she dodged 3 more swings she sees her opponent overextending her last swing, Patricia quickly seized the opportunity. Patricia uses her right arm to grip Yuuka's arm that was holding the parasol immobilizing it, before using her free hand to deliver a punch directly on Yuuka's stomach, she then releases her grip to deliver a right hook towards Yuuka's face, it was strong enough to make Yuuka turn.

Technically, those two punches would have been enough to knock out any ordinary human, adding the fact that Patricia is a Super Soldier with Genetic Modifications, along with wearing futuristic armor. However, Yuuka isn't even human nor was she just a simple youkai. She is one of the strongest and most feared youkai residing in Gensokyo.

Yuuka catches Patricia's third incoming punch with no effort, then Yuuka moves her grip to the middle of her parasol and slaps Patricia with its handle, the slap was so strong that it managed to make a small dent on the Patricia's helmet, although the parasol's handle also suffered damage evident by the cracks appearing on it. Yuuka then uses her parasol as a baseball bat to strike her stunned opponent with a swing so powerful a high pitch whistling sound could be heard, this knocks her opponent off her feet and sends her flying for several meters. Yuuka walks towards her downed opponent and picks her up by the throat.

"Aghh!" Yuuka shouted in pain as Patricia still managed to kick Yuuka's knees, releasing her from Yuuka's grip.

Patricia quickly grabs both sides of Yuuka's head and smashes Yuuka's face on her armored knee followed by a Push kick to the chest then she distanced herself by a meter or two away from Yuuka.

"You know, it's rude to smash a lady's face with your KNEE." Yuuka said as she wiped the blood from her nose.

Patricia didn't reply, but you can hear her breathing heavily, she barely had the energy and strength to continue fighting, with her armor visibly battered with several dents.

"You're at your limit, aren't you?" Yuuka teased "But I am not satisfied yet." Every step Yuuka took made Patricia tense, this made Yuuka grinn with excitement.

"It's been a long time since I've fought someone with no Spell Card shenanigans, now it's time for you to witness my **TRUE STRENGTH**!."

Yuuka throws her parasol on the ground, before yet again dashing towards her opponent. Yuuka broke through the hasty defense of Patricia with a single punch hitting her directly in the chest, followed by an uppercut, Patricia tried to counter but Yuuka dodged it with ease. Yuuka then quickly delivers a straight punch to the face, a cracking sound can be heard from the force of the punch, breaking Patrisia's visor and knocking her to the ground.

"Be proud human, not many of your kind can attest and hold their ground against me without magic." Yuuka said as she picked up her parasol while walking towards Patricia, who was on the ground groaning in pain "That was a fun fight, I've forgotten what it's like to fight without the Spell Card rules."

Once Yuuka reached the downed Patricia, she quickly placed her foot on Patricia's neck. Yuuka looks at her opponent who struggled to pry her foot off, but due to Patricia's current state, failed to even attempt such a feat. This is followed by Yuuka applying more pressure on Patricia's neck as she slowly savors the moment.

"Goodbye Human" Yuuka said as she prepared to deliver the finishing blow.

Suddenly out of nowhere, they both hear the sound of a robotic voice say:

"Sorry, but I can't let you do that."

This alerts Yuuka, she cancels her attack and dodges a particle beam just in time, the beam passes by right where her head should be, clipping a few strands of Yuuka's hair. Yuuka then deploys her parasol to block several bolts of plasma only to be thrown off balance when a grenade landed near her position.

"Annette, give me a status report!" Cesar looked at Annette who was tending to their wounded member.

"She needs medical attention ASAP!" Annette summarized and continued applying basic first aid and Medkits. "I'll try to stabilize her as best I can."

The familiar sound of the Sky Ranger descending was music to their ears, the aircraft rotated with its back facing Alpha Team and Big Sky opened its bay door.

"Alpha Team, the Sky Ranger has arrived!" Cesar shouted as the Team headed straight for the aircraft with Zhang and Cesar guarding the ramp and providing covering fire for the retreating members of the team, as the rest of the team entered the aircraft the two followed inside, but not without Zhang leaving a little present behind for their hosts.

"Have a nice day" Zhang said as he aimed the Blaster Launcher at Yuuka and fired his last rocket, it flew towards Yuuka at incredible speed and exploded leaving the entire area in a huge puff of smoke and dust. The door of the Sky Ranger closed and began gaining altitude.

"Oh my, you're not getting away from me that easily." Yuuka said as she retracted the sunflowers acting as her shield, after the smoke and dust cleared, she then pointed her parasol at the Sky Ranger and a Yuuka clone manifested beside the original doing the same pose as the original.

"For the first time in ages that I've found something so interesting." A glowing ball of light intensifies at the tip of each of the two parasols "You can't just leave without saying goodbye... **[DUAL SPARK]"**

Two giant laser beams shoot out from the tips of the two parasols, headed straight for the aircraft, rapidly closing the distance in seconds.

Luckily, the onboard equipment inside the Sky Ranger managed to warn Big Sky beforehand, with his skill and a little luck, they evaded the two lasers which missed them by inches only grazing the tip of the left wing.

"What an interesting group of humans." Yuuka said as she looked at the aircraft slowly disappearing from her view and her clone dissipating into light particles. "That punch still hurts."

Touching her left cheek where the MEC's Kinetic Strike hit, slightly caressing it then she looks at her bruised hands, which got injured from trying to break the armor of her opponent only succeeding in giving it a deep dent. Punching the armor felt like she was trying to punch her way through meters worth of steel, while she may not be physically strong compared to an Oni, her strength still cannot be taken lightly.

Yuuka checked on her damaged clothes, revealing some bare skin and several varying degrees of burns around her body. Everytime she moved she felt pain, specifically her cheek muscles. Parts of her body began aching after the effects of the adrenaline ran out. She also felt like she broke a few bones, tore several muscles, with slight dizziness and lastly a headache.

Her Parasol didn't come out unscathed, the handle was deformed and had cracks, its stick/shaft had small dents and also had cracks, its canopy/cover was full of holes of varying sizes and also some burn marks. For Yuuka, the feeling was quite foreign, a group of humans with no magical capabilities managed to hurt her to this degree. Even if the battle was cut short, with no definitive winners or losers, it still gave her a lot of things to think about.

Most of the humans from the human village that she's met would usually turn tail and run at the very sight of her, there are some who are so afraid of her, that they would faint at the very moment Yuuka looks at them even if it was just for a moment.

Yet this new group of humans never once wavered in her presence no matter how much terrifying aura she exerted, they know they were up against something beyond them but they continue to press onward, their eyes told of courage and determination born from fighting a inhuman foe in pursuit of a duty they sworn to uphold while she could sense small fear and doubt from them but it never hampered their ability to fight. The only human she knows with that trait is no other than Reimu Hakurei but life decided to give her new names to that list.

It's been a long time since she was able to fight without being held back by Spell Card Rules. She has long forgotten the feeling of fighting someone you're equal with in pure brute strength. Most older and powerful youkais usually avoid fighting each other without setting up rules for the fight, and most favor the Spell Card Rules compared to the Old Ways, as a fight between two powerful entities was very Destructive.

"Just thinking of that battle makes my blood boil in excitement." Yuuka said with a smile, before limping away and entering her Sunflower field and disappearing into the sea of endless sunflowers. "It was a fun fight and I hope I can fight them again."

Unbeknownst to the parties involved, there was one person watching the entire battle from a safe distance, the said person wore a white blouse, with a black short skirt and a tokin on her head, this person also has black wings on her back.

"This will be the GREATEST HEADLINE for tomorrow's edition in my newspaper" She said while holding a camera and speeding away.

* * *

**XCOM HQ**

**Mission Control**

Two days had passed and the people in XCOM began to worry for the Alpha team and Big Sky.

"Sir, radar and scanners are picking up movement in the area." XCOM staff said as he typed commands on his console "Sir, It's the Sky Ranger."

With that said, the people in mission control began clapping their hands while others hugged each other with smiles on their faces, it seems their prayers have been answered. Even Bradford was smiling with Doctor Vahlen, and with Doctor Shen breathing out a sigh of relief, especially Doctor Vahlen who is quite excited by what Alpha team has discovered.

"Okay people you know the drill, establish contact with Big Sky." Bradford said

"Patching it through now, Sir" replied by one of the staff

"Central this is Big Sky, do you read me?" Big Sky said through the comms

"Big Sky, this is Central we read you loud and clear" Bradford answered

"Rubbers on the road and the kids are in the back seat, although one of them needs immediate medical attention." Big Sky said "You won't believe what's on the other side Central."

"I'm sure you've got a great story to tell when you get back here." Bradford replied

"I'll alert the infirmary of the situation, and welcome back to the other side."

"Roger that, Central" Big Sky said before cutting out the transmission

"Big Sky, Why are there sandwiches scattered all around troop bay?" Cesar asked

"That's strange, I don't remember spilling the box of sandwiches before I got in the cockpit." Big Sky replied

"The cover must've been loose before take off, then during the evacuation, I must've tipped the boxes over." Big Sky assumed "Sorry if it made a mess back there, I'll try to clean it up once we get back to the base."

Cesar accepted the explanation, after all Big Sky must have rushed with securing the boxes and supplies, without double checking them before take off.

**Timeskip**

Alpha team had finally arrived at the XCOM HQ hangar bay. As the team exited the Sky Ranger, Patricia of course was carried straight to the infirmary and the rest of the team went to the armory to deposit their weapons and armor, they all failed to notice a green haired fairy peeking out from one of the stacks boxes inside. Once Daiyousei saw that the people were gone, she crawled out of her hiding spot, her body was aching in pain due to her awkward position while hiding and waiting for the humans to leave.

She peaked out and saw many humans, busy doing their tasks, and this made her wonder if she was somewhere in the human village. Especially since she saw a few familiar things, things that the Kappa would usually use when they create their inventions.

"What the…."

Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind her, she turns around and sees Big Sky in his flight suit staring directly at her.

" **Intruder**!" Big Sky shouted

Alerting the nearby workers who all , at the same time, looked towards the source of the shout. The workers all saw a green haired child with wings who was near the ramp of the Sky Ranger.

A really loud and annoying Alarm rings throughout the entire XCOM Headquarters. Daiyousei quickly ran out of the aircraft and gazed back to see Big Sky picking up a gun on one of the racks in the Sky Ranger. She quickly went inside one of the conveniently open ventilation vents, she fit perfectly in the vent, she even had some extra space to maneuver around.

Big Sky then proceeded to contact Bradford

"Central this is Big Sky, we've got a situation in the Hangar."

**VIGILO CONFIDO**

**End of Chapter 3**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special Thanks to a friend of mine who beta read and EDITED the chapter

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Its not XCOM when one of your rookie soldier doesn't panic and your 95% hit chance didn't crit and hit.  
> Also Council Spokesman voice is too damn good.  
> Thanks to my Friend Beta reading the chapter


End file.
